Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-29
$50 KILLED AT CROSSINGS
REAL RAILROAD PROBLEM
Companies Faced With Necessity of Pro-
tecting Own Property as Toll for
Five Months of 1926 Grows.
BY WALTER X. NcCALLUM.


Alarmed at the rapidly increasing
| toll of human life taken this Spring
and Summer in accidents between
| swiftly moving trains and auto
mobiles. and even between the latter
and trains at standstill, safety ex-
ecutives of the railroads have inau-
gurated even more drastic measures
to protect the lives of motorists aud
to safeguard their own property from
damage by careless or foolish drivers.
Even though the railroads more than
two wears ago embarked with whole
hearted cooperation on an intensive
drive to cut down the number and
death toll i'm grade crossing acct
tents and the results of the campaign
last year were held TO be satisfactory,
death has been at the wheel of more
automobiles this past Spring than
ever before in the history OF the de-
velopment of mans twin modes OF
annihilating distance. Records OF
the American Railway Association,
now revealed for the first time. In
dictate All alarming increase both In
the number of grade-crossing acct
dents for the first Ave months of the
current year and in the death toll
taken in them.
Eight hundred and fAy-nine per-
sons were killed in 2,202 accidents at
grade crossings in the five months
ended May 81, while 2,606 were in
jured. These figures compare with
III persons killed and 2,19S injured
in the comparable period of 1925. For
the first four months of the present
year 662 were killed and 2,040 injured
in 1851 Embarrassing accidents,
while the corresponding period for
1925 shows that, 571 were killed and
$40 injured in ,494 such accidents.
These figures, too, the rail executives
| have been told. end at the very begin
| ming of the dangerous season of heavy
| travel-well before vacations have be-
gun and even before the tourist move
ment has gotten well under way.
| What the figures for the dangerous
| months of June, July. August and
September Will be they can only
guess, for complete statistics are not
yet available. Their apprehension and
concern, however, they declare, can
we'll be measured by the daily notices
| in the newspapers that here, there,
somewhere else, death has crouched
behind an automobile steering wheel
| and has claimed his toll. That 1926
| will eclipse any previous year in rail
road history in this hideous record is
a foregone conclusion, unless in some
| strange way the accident rate sud
denly drops or unless motorists since
| May and for the remainder of the
year cross crossings more cautiously
than they did during the first five
months.
| Increase Is Unexplained.
| The railroads, which have gone to
| great lengths and spent millions of
dollars in protecting a needless public
| from its own carelessneSS, are at a
loss to account for this sudden and
heavy increase in Embarrassing acct
dents and Embarrassing casualties.
| Certainly they have not relaxed their
vigilance in any measure. for in the
| face of the most recent records they
| have frightened up their crossing pro-
| lection systems and plan even more
| stringent measures. The only real
| reason the rail executives can find
for the situation is the large increase
in automobile registration noted this
| year and certain to continue, they
claim, as long as national prosperity
| exists. They do not believe that the
| public generally is today more care
less or less careful about the danger
attending any crossing where swiftly
| moving trains rush through every
| hour of the day, or the croaking Of
some who claim that bad liquor is at
| the bottom of most of the grade-cross-
| ing accidents. Their theory is simply
| that with more automobiles on the
road there are more foolish drivers at
| the wheel willing to take a chance
| for thrill In the hope they Will beat
the train to the crossing.
To show how nearly right they are
| in the assumption that automobile
| registrations have something to do
with the increase in crossing acct
dents, the railroad men have prepared
chart going back to the year 1915.
Up to early in 1926 automobile regis
trations had increased 744 per cent.
| In the same period grade crossing
accidents increased just 100 per cent.
But when an automobile is driven at
full speed into train drawn across a
public highway. standing perfectly
still to load or discharge passengers,
what then? Whose is the fault? Ask
the railroad men. Railroads must
run and automobiles must run, and
the motor car being the lighter of the
two and not operated under the same
careful and uniform rules as the rail
carriers, always gets the worst of the
collision. The story of the automo-
bile driven into a train at stand
still is not at all fanciful. 1t was done
on Long Island just few days ago
and has happened many times all
over the United States.
r. III. Ashton. president of the
American Railway Association, con
siders highway crossing safety lone
Of the gravest problems facing the
Nation today, owing to the continued
increase in the number of automobiles
in USE
Every effort is being made" he
said, mot only by the railroads OF
this country, but by State authorities
automobile associations, the National
Safety Conference and other orga MIA
tons to bring about a reduction il
grade crossing accidents. Despite
their efforts $50 persons were killed
in such accidents during the first five
months this year. compared with III
during the same period last year. Al
the same time more than $500 per