The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-09-29

railroad told the steam railroad sec
ton of the tenth annual congress OF
the national safety council here yester-
day.
With each recurring year the in
crease in the number of automobiles
and the growing carcIessneSs OF the
drivers make it very important that
we devote some extraordinary effort to
lessen accidents at grade crossings. re
are confronted with the fact that there
are l0,0G0,O00 motor vemcIes now in use
in the United States.
cit was with alarm that | noticed
the reports of grade crossing accidents
showing increases month by month in
1919, and | determined 10 apply REM
edy. | felt that if the drivers OF cars
could be reached intimately they would
heed warnings. We started the cam
paign by placing observers at a few
crossings where travel was heavy. When
the observer noticed the driver OF an
automobile approach the crossing and
dash over it without taking any precau-
tionarv measures to assure himself that
there was no train coming, the license
number of the machine was placed on
the card. These cards were forwarded
to automobile commissioners according
to the state which issued the licenses.
The commissioners forwarded the cards
to the owners of the machines.
''These cards, after reciting the facts
of the observation, warned the drivers
or owners of automobiles, that their
lives and property had been risked un-
necessarily, and that a repetition might
bring disaster. In the great majority OF
cases, the recipient of the card realized
that he had been careless and great
many even wrote their appreciation OF
our efforts to save them from INJURY.
There was a gradually declining per
centagc of failures to take precautlon.
"When we inaugurated the observa-
ton plan, we found that 81 per cent OF
automobiles failed to take proper pre-
cautions when crossing our tracks. In
the three months of November, Deem
Der. 1919. January 1920, we made 1888
observations and there was a total OF
4S4 failures to take safety precautions,
or - per cent.
during the year of 1920, we eX-
tended our observations. In the II
months of that year there were 1860
observations with 1926 failures, or l6
per cent.
"In 1921, our observers became even
more active and in the first SIX months
of this year, there were 24S9SS ObSer-
vations made. and the failures reached
only 8.775 or , IL per cent.
"With genuine and sympathetic co
operation by all the railroads in some
definite plan of campaign, the accidents
at grade crossings in this country can
be cut to less than one per cent of the
machines using the crossings.
"Were | to ask the average railroad
man what day in the week he believed
the greater number of accidents hap
nou. he would say Sunday. One hundred
thirty eight accidents happened on the
following davs of the week: Sunday,
II. Monday, %. Tuesday, -. Wednesday.
-. Tlursdarr. Il. Friday. 10 and Satur-
day. 90. 1t would seem to indicate that
the automobile truck is more likely to
accident at crossings than the pleasure
ear, for there are more of them in use
on weekdays than on Sundays.
"Another surprising fact was that
nearly all the accidents haDDened while
the weather was clear. This seems to
indicate that persons take more chances
i'm clear weather than when it is raining
or snowinc
'.Thc question of automobile acct
dents at grade crossings is, I consider
the most important one that the rail
roads have to deal with. and [ cannot
impress unon this BODY of safety mer
too STRONGLY the necessity OF inaugural
;nr a vigorous educational camnalgr
AGAINST accidents of this character, both
for humane and economic reasons.