Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-04-20
Lesson of tho Glen Allen Tragedy

Lesson of tho Glen Allen Tragedy
-FOUR more precious human lives have
4 been paid as II part OF the blood price
OF Virginia's failure to compel the rail-
roads TO guard their grade crossings prop
erly. How many already have been paid,
perhaps no one knows. but ii is a gruesome
total. How many more will be paid before
the State realizes its obligation to It's citi-
zens and takes the necessary legislative
steps to abolish the thousands Of death
traps such as that at Glen Allen. scene OF
Sundays slaughter?
Granted that this latest Embarrassing
horror was easily preventable. that it may
have been directly traceable to a youthful
drivers carciessness, still that fact does not
relieve the railroad company from the onus
or these deaths i'll not having made them
impossible, nor does it relieve the State
from the charge of negligence in not COM
polling the railroad to do what 1t has failed
to do of its own accord. Repeatedly bills
providing for the compulsory establishment
or guards, gates, or the installation OF sig
mailing devices have been introduced in tho
General Assembly, but always sufficient in
fucnce has been brought. to bear against
them TO encompass their defeat. The rail-
roads have urged that passage OF such a
measure would cost them tens OF thousands
Of dollars. or course, il would! But shall
h'Ss ~ lSi ihAttNN ~ baiallIC
their dollars against the States own flesh
and blood?
In the territory contiguous TO Richmond.
and the statement holds true of practically
every section through which Il railroad
runs, there are scores OF these death traps,
and through each of them daily hundreds
OF automobiles and other vehicles pass.
There is nothing to warn drivers OF the
approach of a train. no gates, no signals,
nnH II, oil tnn ~, q =, ., r. ,;n-, ~ .i,o .,.I,
is so obstructed that it cannot be seen until
the front wheels of the cur are almost
upon them. That is the case at Glen Allen.
where u building on one side cuts of the
view to the north. and one on the other
side cuts 1t of to the south. 1t is the case
at Greendale, q mile nearer Rich
where, between a building on one side and
piled-up railroad ties on tho other, il is
impossible to observe the approach OF Il
train from the south. 1t is the case at
Dumbarton, ii is the case at the Highland
Park crossing over the Chesapeake and
Ohio. ii is the case at scores OF other grade
crossings, and the wonder is that. instead
OF an occasional tragedy, there is not one
every day. At many of these crossings
where buildih rs, piles OF lumber Or similar
nbstructions do not interfere with the yisi-
bility of trains, the same dangerous result
has been attained by hedges OF other thick
hnuergrowth mat has been permitted TO
grow to the very edge or the tracks, and
thus form 4 hazard for every person who
has to drive across them.
These conditions have been the same for
years. With each recurring fatality they
are pointed out, but nothing has been done
10 remedy them ind make them safe for
travellers along the States highways. Main
tenance of guards and gates at all but the
most dangerous crossings is impracticable.
but the installation Of electric signals Is
practicable and the cost would not be pro-
hibitive or beyond reason. Other States
have enforced their use, and what they
have done for the protection of life Vir-
ginia can and, in the continued Indifference
of the railroads. should do. IL tho Glen
Allen tragedy brings it to Il sense of its duty
toward the public, then the pitiful sacrifice
Of these lives will not have been in vain.