The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-08-28
Science Aids in Cutting Down
Toll from Railway Accidents
Automatic Stops Employed Roads to Minimize Wrecks
and Their Attendant Horrors Safety First Is Slogan
;, of Officials, Who Experiment with New Inventions.

, country. under the influence of public
| opinion, which has been thoroughly fired,
roars out a restless demand for a better
guarantee of safety for the travelling
public. During such periods several
Presidents messages have called atten-
ton to the overwhelming Importance
which the subject demands. and these
important state papers have earnestly
urged as public duty appropriate legis-
lation for correcting the evil
Verdict Is Overdue.
The verdict of Congress is long over
due That branch of the government,
however, has long been considering the
subject and has recently adjourned after
having a studiously moderate bill for
safeguarding railway traffic favorably
reported by the Interstate Commerce
Committee to the House.
Without considering the vast total of
deaths occasioned by railroad wrecks in
this country or the misery that has been
buried under these figures. which would
add emphasis to the need of correction,
let us contemplate the smallest chapter
in the annals of railway disasters.
II all of the passengers that were killed
on our railroads in one year. even the
year having the smallest death roll, were
slaughtered in single spectacular train
wreck. Congress would undoubtedly be
aroused TO instant action as that body
was inspired to frame a law for the i'm
mediate promotion of safety at sea after
the sinking of the Titanic.
1t used to be stated that safety to rail-
road travel could only be purchased at
the price of much tragic experience gain
cd from series OF railway accidents.
That only from many OF such serious
and fatal accidents could lessons be
learned which would lead to proper meth
DDS and means of prevention.
But today railroad accidents which
simply repeat former disasters, cease to
be simply misfortunes-they are a ma
tional disgrace and a reproach to care
lessness and a dereliction of duty in not
needing lessons already taught.
The chief causes of collision accidents
las amply borne out by accident stalls
ticsl are due to the lack of discernment
and obedience of wayside signals, no
matter how correctly or perfectly they
are produced or displayed, especially
when coupled with the factor of excess
sive speed of fast trains that run on
roads having a congested or frequent
traffic.
The other predominating cause of
wrecks on a railroad is derailment, which
cause also involves the factor of Excess
sive speed coupled with defective track
equipment
These are the underlying and palpable
causes of railway accidents that have for
the past fifteen years found expression
in the annual death roll.
This article will. however. be confined
to brief discussion of the accident
problem and the remedy therefor as it
relates to railway collisions.
AS the reader is aware, the present
system of governing the movement of
trains is mainly dependent on the use of
a roadway or waysde signal, |. e, the
employment of a blade by day and a
light by night, either of which must be
infallibIy and timely located by the Wis
ion OF the engineer under all kinds of
weather and often under trying circum-
stances.
The highest mechanical expression OF
this form of signaling is the modern
automatic wayside block signal. which
is a highly organized and delicate piece
of apparatus, that is very efficient when