Evening star., 1946-08-18

OuI VI SllitdSO oliol I4y dlICi uooii uiiC
day last April, each with about 200
passengers.
Less than an hour later, Is of them
were dead or dying and So were in
hospitals or pinned in the wreckage
awaiting the acetylene torches which
cut them free from the twisted steel.
The Advance Flyer, running three
minutes ahead of the Exposition Flyer,
had made an unscheduled stop at
Naperville, ILL.,, because a trainman Sus-
pected hot box or defective brake. The
Exposition Flyer. hurtling the rails at
80 miles an hour, had passed yellow
caution signal about mile and half
away, a red stop signal 1,100 feet away
and smashed into the rear car of the
Advance Flyer.
1t was the worst wreck in the history
of the Burlington Railroad, the worst
on any railroad in nearly year and
q half.
ICC Findings.
1t wouldnt have happened if a safety
device long known and tested had been
in operation. Interstate Commerce
Commission. on completion of its in
vestigation. reported that automatic
train control, which takes charge when
q train crew for any reason fails to
heed warning signals, would have pre-
vented the accident.
The commission, however, did not
recommend that the Burlington install
automatic train-control equipment,
pointing out that it has pending an in
ouiry to determine whether all rail-
roads should be required to install auto
matte train-control and other automatic
safety appliances on all tracks where the
authorized speed is so miles an hour or
more.
The commissions only recommended
ton, as result of its investigation of
the Naperville wreck, was that the
Burlington discontinue operating passen-
ger cars which do not meet present
safety standards
1t has been 40 years since Congress
directed the commission to investigate
train-control equipment, and nearly 25
years since the commission reported:
Automatic control Of trains is prac-
ticable. = . The use of automatic train
stop or train control devices is desirable
as means of increasing safety.
The conclusion is inevitable that dis
astrouS collisions viii continue to occur
unless and until automatic train-control
devices are installed to prevent against
human failure
Devices Ignored.
That report was made in 1922. Re-
Gently the commission reported that
14,120 miles of railroad track were pro-
tected with automatic train-control or
train-stop devices. There are nearly
100000 miles of railroad track in this
country, SO that something like per
cent of the trackage is now equipped
with the devices which interested Con-
gress back in 1906
This is not to say that the passenger
takes his life in his hands when he
boards railroad train. He has an ex-
ton safe and sound-in fact. the gen.
eral counsel of the Association of
Casualty and Surety Executives said re-
Gently, comparing home and railroad
accidents, that people are safer on trains
than they are in their own homes.
This does not, however, alter the fact
that there are. every year, preventable
railroad accidents which take their toll
in life and limb and that the most
obvious method of reducing these ac-
cidents is wider use of automatic safety
appliances
In the last fiscal year for which the
ICC has compiled reports, ended June
80, 1945, 1t investigated 81 railroad COL
lisions or derailments in which 311 per-
sons were killed and 2,3O1 injured.
Almost exactly half Of the collision.
investigated-35 out of 71-occurred on
lines lacking the automatic block signals
which warned the crew of the Burling-
tons Exposition Flyer.
Block signals have been known for
more than 100 years. More than 40
years ago the ICC urged a Congress to
pass law forbidding operation of pas
senger trains over tracks which lacked
that protection. Since 1920 the COM
their installation when necessary to
eliminate hazards
Half Protection.
There are two kinds of block signals.
automatic and manual About half of
the Nations trackage. 101 ,3S9 miles, is
now protected by automatic block
signals, and another 4o,S7s miles is
equipped with manually operated block
signals. This leaves something over So
900 miles unprotected by even a rudi-
mentary safety system which has been
available to the railroads since 1842.
And over much of that unprotected
$4,000 miles passenger trains travel at
high speed. 1t was only a few weeks
ago that the ICC began its inquiry to
determine whether it should require
block signals, automatic train control
and other safety devices on all tracks
where the authorized speed is so miles
an hour or more.
This investigation was initiated Short
ly after the Commission had ordered
not recommended, for once-that the
Seaboard Airline Railway install auto
matte block signals on $50 miles of its
tracks
What spurred the commission to ac-
ton in this instance was a collision at
Kollocks, S. c., last December l6 in
which six persons were killed and $50
injured. 1t took into consideration also
the circumstances that it had investi-
gated 10 previous accidents on the Sea-
board, attributed either to the absence
of block signals or to inadao,Iate sjo-