Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-09-01
SAFETY IN Travel
REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENT IN
RAILROAD OPERATION.
Few Casualties in 1915 Constitute q
Wonderful Record-Number of Ac-
cidents Are Showing a Constant
Iy Increasing Reduction.

The annual bulletin concerning rail-
way accidents has been issued by the
| interstate commerce commission; and
the great decrease in fatalities and ac-
| cidents noted has inspired much COM
ment in engineering circles. 1t marks,
says the Railway Age Gazette, "the
greatest Improvement in safety of rail-
road operation ever recorded in
single year." Traffic was exception
ally light in 1915; but the Gazette does
not overlook the fact that the num-
Der of accidents is always roughly pro-
portionate to the volume of business.
The decrease is much greater than
could be accounted for by the early in
dustrial depression. AS the statisti-
clans have put 1t:
1.-THE total number Of passengers
killed in 1915, 222, out of approx
mately a billion carried, was less than
for any other year since 1898, when
only 79S000,000 were carried; and the
number injured was less than any
other year since 1906. The total num-
Der of employees killed was less than
for any other year since 1898, when
there were only about One-half as
many employees as in 1915, and the
number injured was less than for any
other year since 1911"
Moreover, during the last few
months of 1915 there was heavy in
crease in bushes on all railroads, espe-
cially east of the Mississippi; yet
there seems to have been only q slight
ly longer roster of accidents than
usual in November and December. And
government figures leave no doubt that
the ratio of accidents to volume of
business has been steadily reduced in
the last decade.
The form of transportation accident
blame is the train accident. Cross
ing accidents and the killing of tres
passers are seldom chargeable to the
operating department of the railroad.
And the lists of fatalities in train ac-
cidents, from the years 1910 to 1915,
inclusive, show a steady and most
hopeful improvement. In 1910, 932
were killed; in 1911, S67; in 1912,
$50; in 1913, $40; in 1914, 626; and in
1915, 40. Taking passengers alone,
the reduction exhibits about the same
steadiness, there being only one
marked fluctuation upwards. In 1910,
421 were killed; in 1911, 356; in 1912,
31S; in 1913, 403; in 1914, 265; and in
talities among employees shows also
fairly steady decrease, with a remark
able drop in the last two years. In
1910, 1888 were killed; in 1911, 3,163
in 1912, 1926; in 1918, 1901 in 1914,
1850; and in 1915, 1900. These lists
do not include those who came by their
deaths in what are termed industrial
accidents" There are recorded also
parallel reductions in the number of
injured among both passengers and
employees, the total for 1915 having
been less than 100000. And it is well
known that in the last few years the
seriousness of the injuries to passen-
gers, at least, has leSsened. The
crushing, the manning, the burning
that were almost commonplace in the
days of wooden cars have given way,
as the claims departments of the rail-
ways testify, to bruises, fractured
bones, and nervous shock. All the fac
tors that have operated to reduce the
number of deaths have operated to re-
duce also the gravity of injuries.
few of the larger eastern railways
have been eminently successful in
showing that, so far as passengers are
concerned, safety in railway manage
ment can be made almost an exact sci-
ence. EEsfs'23f'.e .H'ffl ~ 40 .a,,4.~''