The San Francisco call., 1913-07-22
RAILWAY BLAME D
FOR FATAL WRECK
State Commission Holds
General Disregard of Or
ders Caused Accident

The San Francisco. Napa and Calls
toga Railway company is held respon-
sible by the California state railroad
commission for the recent collision on
the line near Vallejo resulting In death
to 13 persons and injury to 30 others.
The report. issued yesterday, finds
16 violations of the rules governing
the operation of electric railway lines
within the state and censures the COM
pany for falling to punish employees for
violations.
The. real cause of the wreck" says
the report. was not the failure to
adopt rules, but the failure to require
compliance with established rules and
regulations and the failure In such
way that this commission can not es-
cape the conclusion that IT Is directly
traceahle to the officials OF this COM
pany." .sx
The Immediate causes as specified
by the engineering department and in
dorsed by the commission are:
NEGLECT IS GENERAL
I'd The failure Of Conductor
Richmond to secure a clearance
from the dispatcher before leaving
Vallejo with northbound passen-
ger train No. 6.
CD The failure of Motorman
the clearance from his conductor.
t3) Dispatcher O'Leary's viola
drs, non OF the rule requiring him INTO to
before moving the inferior train.
f4 The failure of the officers of
tnesraHway company to insist on a u
company In the foregoing respects
and In other respects, resulting In
a general failure to comply with
the rules governing the operation
of its trains.
The commission draws particular at
tention to the violation of rule 2SS,
reading as follows: When trains run
ming in opposite directions are to be
moved toward each other by train or
ders, the train whose rights are to be
restricted must first receive the order
before the order is given to the train
to be moved against it or toward it,
The commissions Investigations of
the operation of interurban electric
railroads In this state show that they
have largely failed 10 operate their rail-
roads as demanded for the safety of the
travelling public.
ERROR IN PRACTICE
This has largely been due to the
fact" says the report, that the man.
ayers of such railroads are inclined to
operate them as though they were or
binary streetcar lines. forgetting that
the cars actually operated are inter-
urban cars maintaining a high rate of
speed"
The commission announces its deter
mination to order the equipment of
block signal systems by the princi-
pal electric lines in the state. The
report adds:
Most of these interurban lines
should be protected by block signals.
and our engineer has been directed to
have a thorough investigation made of
all these roads with a view to requir-
ing the installation Of block signals
at once in the more urgent cases and
gradually in all cases If the In
stallation of the necessary safety de-
vices requires an increase of the rates
of these utilities. such increase Will be
allowed. The travelling public has a
right to be protected and should be
willing to pay for such protection"
The fatal collision on the San Fran
cisco, Napa and Calistoga railway OF
Cured June 10, 1918, about two miles
north OF Vallejo. OF the killed 10 were
passengers and three will employees.