Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-02-19

clared, a man in an automobile could
not hear a train running or hear an
engine whistle. He had demonstrated
this to his own satisfaction time and
again, and had induced others to test
it. Last summer in the outskirts OF
Chester, S.. c., he came within an ace
Of getting himself killed by one Of his
own trains while riding with a party
of prominent gentlemen in a car thai
does not make much noise. Again
besides being physically unable t
hear a train while in a running motor
car, a driver Is obsessed with operat'
ing his machine, and even where HI
can see a train coming, he often doe.
not look out for danger.
The other cause Of accidents, HI
continued, was the feeling Of a mar
in a high-powered car that he could
beat the train to It," when he did SCI
danger ahead. He miscalculated space
and speed, or doesn't figure on thu
train moving at all, forgetting that
however speedy his own car is, anG
however short the distance to be ira.
versed may be, the train is moving a.
the rate Of 100 feet a second If it is
running 60 miles an hour or so feet q
second IL running 30 miles an hour, OF
rs feet a second If operating at the
comparatively slow rate Of Is miles ar
hour. Mr.. Nichols figures that many
an accident happens because the au-
tomobile driver, confident in the PROV
ess Of his car, attempts to get across
before the train can reach the crossing
and Is caught.
This would have been his fate, he
said, in his near-accident at Chester
last summer, If the driver Of the car
had attempted to shoot his machine
over the railroad. In company with
a supreme court justice, a real estate
man, an insurance man and a banker
all intelligent people, capable of
taking care of themselves in any sit
~uation, he was speeding along at a
rate Of about IS miles an hour. Emery
ing from a wood that screened a view
Of the railroad track, the car was in
an open space or probably 1000 feet,
with a view Of the railroad for a mile
and a half, straight up the track. Not
one of his party looked for a train. Not
one Of the party heard a whistle. 1t was
only when the car had approached the
track nea enough for Mr.. Nichols to
glimpse the rails, sitting slightly bow
ed to the rush Of air, that he thought
of a train. Then he looked up. The
southbound passenger train on the
Carolina & North Western was COM
ing into Chester. Mr.. Nichols shouted
to the driver, who instantly slapped
on his emergency brake, and the next
thing they knew they had come to a
stop jam up against the railroad and
Old Man Bob Smyre, the engineer, was
looking down at them through his
goggles.
Instant investigation proved that
the engineer had given the crossing
signal long and loud, yet nobody In
the car had heard 1t or the noise Of
the train. A negro standing at the
crossing had heard 1t distinctly and
had seen the steam rise with each
blast. Since hen Mr.. Nichols has tried
it several times and said that while he
could see the steam rise from each
blast Of the whistle, he could not hear
a train, even when he sees it. 1t Is
each other on a double track railroad,
approach without sound to the occu-
pants of either. The idea is that the
air is compressed between the two,
and that the sound only comes when
they rush past each other and the
compression is relieved.
In the case Of drivers Of vehicles
other than automobiles, Mr.. Nichols
declared that people habitually drive
over railroads without so much as a
look, a halt or any sign Of conscious
ness whatever that they are about to
cross a danger point. He has had
ILLS uclIlOIlSlIdlCo ~ lliii iiA =
time since he purchased an automo-
bile to run over his railroad on in
spection tours-a machine hat enables
him to cover his road in three days
from Chester to Edgemont, whereas
ordinary inspection trips take ten
days.
Often, he said, he had ONE on a
string Of wagons or buggies, or on
single vehicles, moving toward a cross
ing without any p%recaution whatever,
and had allowed his machine to run
| along, under control for fear he would
| hit somebody, until the drivers had
| just cleared the track, and then had
sounded his horn vigorously, and had
| scared the drivers out Of their seats
They would jump as II from profound
meditation or from slumber itself. This
experience, repeated many times, has
| convinced the railroader that people
generally take no thought of the
dangers Of crossing a railroad. Long
familiarity. perhaps, has dulled their
| apprehension. stop! Look! Listen!"
those three words which, tradition
says, some smart lawyer got $4,000
for writing as a suitable railroad
crossing sign, and which, If needed,
would prevent grade crossing horrors
| forevermore, have lost significance.
Dipping into psychology, Mr.. Nichols
noted the curious effect on the human
mind Of speed regulations. Illustrat-
ing, he said that II a road in one part
Of a town was forbidden to operate
trains at more than 10 miles an hour.
for instance, and a road in another
part was allowed to run it's trains
regardless-lickity-split the slow train
road would kill ten people to every one
the fast train road would kill. Peo-
pie, he said, would get the habit of
thinking in crossing the slow road,
that, "Oh, we'll, these slow trains won't
catch anybody"-or something like
that. But at crossings On the fast
road, he said. people would be wary
op6 20 raf,,l banauca tbey would know