The Nome daily nugget., 1915-09-02

,tatlsdes regarolng the share Of the pubic in swelling the annual list ot aeatns resulting rom railways, street sars, automopnes and other moving enIcles. Statistics ranging over a genoa of years disclose that an average J1 three thousand children under the 4ge of Iourteen are killed annually and probably three times as many are ser Aously injured. The accidents to adults rom the same cause while by no means so numerous are still sunicient to bring the total to nearly a half million each year. The public have long grown ac- eustomed to looking upon this horrible .olI as more or less a natural condition Jf the times and if blame Is directed toward any object il is usually toward he train or car or other vehicle which may be the direct cause. Now the truth of the matter is that fully three fourths of such accidents are not only avoidable but are also mainly due to the general carelessness of the indi- eidual Few indeed of the many thou sands who daily pass along the high ways of the nation observe more
 han most trifiing caution as to their own safety. People will venture across
 Fl !, For. xxrif b..ttf stopping for even a moment to look for signs Of an approaching danger while the majority of those who daily cross the tracks of railways are utterly re- gardless of their own safety and few give even an instants attention to the old familiar warning: stop, Look
 Listen" That the great majority of such accidents are due largely to the utter carelessness of the public is amply disclosed by the recent demon stration of one of the large eastern railroads which undertook the task of learning the reason for the excessive number of accidents occurring on their system The General Safety Agent of the road, the New York Central, in order to arrive at a definite reason for the great number of crossing accidents, posted trained observers at dozens of rialroad crossings between Syracuse N. Y. and Indianapolis, Indiana. with instructions to keep a strict account of the actions of pedestrians, chauffeurs and the drivers of horse drawn vehi- cles. The experiments were kept up for a period of several weeks and three distinct sets of observations revealed the following results: Out of a total of 1 ,062 pedestrians 155 looked both ways before attempting to cross the tracks. 3S7 looked one way and 3,520 looked not at all. Out of 2,794 drivers of horse vehicles. 165 looked both ways, 2s1 looked one way and the remainder did not spare a single glance. Among the drivers 30 looked both NdNS 60 ioohtd put Oilt WAY anu lnt remaining sO1 out of the total of 923 observed did not look either to the right or left before crossing. Yet, be it observed, almost each and every one of the crossings was what is known as "blind' or dangerous crossing, where the approach of a train was not easily discerned until in close proximity to the crossings, yet. withal. out of a total of 7779 persons passing over 6,669 did not turn their heads to look if danger was near. It would be difficult to se- cure a more active demonstration of the complete carelessness of the average American regarding his own safety and it is doubtless true that the same rule would apply in great degree to the accidents occurring in the factories
 mills and mines-the majority of vic tilns failed to take the smallest pre- cautions when venturing into contact with recognized dangers.