Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1881-09-03 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS IN 1880.  The general report by Mr. H. G. Calcraft to the Board of Trade upon the accidents wh;(.l-1 occurred on the railways of.the United Kingdom u,..lng 1880 has been presentedfto Parliament mid published. The total number of persons returned to the Board of Trade as having been killed in the working of the railways during the year was 1,136, and the number of injured 3,958. Of these, 143 persons killed and 1,613 persons injured were passengers. Of the remainder, 546 killed and 2,080 injured were officers or servants of the railway companies, or of contractors; and 447 killed and 265 injured were trespassers, suicides and other persons who met with accidents at level crossings or from miscellaneous causes.  Of the passengers 29 were killed and 904 were injured from accidents to trains. t in addition to the above the companies have reurned 451 persons killed and 2,733 injured from accidents which occurr ed on their premises, but in which the movement of vehicles on railways was not concerned. The total number of passenger journeys exclusive of journeys by season-ticket holders, was 603,884,000 for,the year 1880, or 41,151,110 more than in the previous year. Calculated on these figures, the proportions of passengers killed Mad injured in 1880 from all causes were, in round numbers, 1 in 4,252,704 killed and 1 in 374,166 injured. In 1879 the proportions were 1 in 3,517,000 killed and 1 in 474,166 injured. The proportion of passengers returned as killed and injured from causes beyond their own control was in 1880 lin 20,927,034 killed and lin 667,300 injured. In 1879 the proportion was 1 in 281,366,500, or including the Tay-bridge disaster, 1 in 7,503,000 killed and 1 in 934,700 injured. _ _ _ _  In the general remarks at the conclusion of his report Mr. Calcraft states that a perusal of the circumstances which led to the accidents and collisions of the past year leads to the conclusion that while they were due principally to mistakes (95 out of 118), the greater part of them might, under other circumstances, have been averted, or at all events modified in their effects. He considers that the safety of railway traveiling has been greatly enhanced from year to year, notwithstanding the greatly increased traffic on the railways and the large length of new railways opened. .The length of railways has increased between December, 1873, and December, 1880, by upwards of 1,851 miles, or 11 per cent. The number of miles travelled by trains of all descriptions has increased from 197,000,000 in 1873 to 241,000,000 in 1880, or 22 per cent. The number of passengers carried, exclusive of season-ticket holders, has increased from 455,000,000 in 1873 to nearly 604,000,000 in 1880, or 32 per cent.  The number of tons of merchandise and minerals carried has increased from 191,000,000 in 1873 to 235,000,000 in 1880, or 23 per cent.  The number of accidents- arising in the working of railways has decreased from 459 in 1873 to 322 in 1880, or 30 per cent. and the number of collisions included in those numbers h ks likewise decreased from 253 in 1873 to 134 in 1880, or 47 per cent., the proportion of collisions to the total number of train accidents having decreased from 55 per cent. in 1873 to 416 per cent. in 1880, tending to prove that the interlocking and absolute block systems have been the means of preventing a large number of collisions.  Mr. Calcraft adds that the fatal accidents of 1880 shows a somewhat increased proportion to the traffic when compared with 1879, but a much smaller proportion than in most former years. They show, too, that no amount of mechanical appliances will operate as a complete protection against the consequences of human negligence, or dispense with the most important of all appliances, an efficient and well-ordered staff of employes. But the tables given in the report also show that the gradual and partial adoption by the railway companies of the block system and of interlocking points and signals, so long urged in Parliament and by the Government, has been concurrent with a decrease in the number of accidents, and that efficient mechanical appliances, so far from increasing the risks arising from human negligence, tend to diminish them.  It is to be hoped, Mr. Calcraft concludes, that similar results will soon be obtained by the further adoption of efficient continuous brakes, a species of appliance which has special advantages, since it not only enables the railway servants to avoid an accident, but also when, in consequence of negligence or other circumstances, an accident has become inevitable, enables them to minimize its consequences.  THE Tzurrforns.—The use of the telephone has been adopted on the system of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, and during the past few days the office of the superintendent, Mr. Cockburn, at Victoria has been pLced in immediate communication with Holborn Viaduct, the City terminal station; with Loughborough Junction, where there are large sorting and make-up sidings; and with Wandsworth-road, where are the head-quarters of the locomotive and other departments. The goods manager's office at Victoria has also been connected with the goods dep6t at Blackfriars. The instruments In use are constructed on the Gower-Bell principle, which for some time has been used satisfactorily to connect the Victoria Station with the residence of the chairman, Ni. J. S. Forbes, at West Wickham, near Beckenham