Court Opinion

ID: 9808600
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:43:34.257402+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:14:18.406224
License: Public Domain

Claue, O. J.,
concurring: In view of tbe simultaneous deaths of these two young men at this crossing near Greensboro, and tbe not infrequent instances of death or maiming by railroads at tbe crossings near tbat constantly growing town (many of which have been presented by cases in this Court), tbe railroads might well consider appropriate steps to abolish all grade crossings near tbat and other populous towns in this State wherever accidents at crossings have become numerous. Tbe crossing of public roads by a railroad track on tbe same grade is well-nigh unknown in Europe. It has been abolished in Massachusetts and Connecticut and to a large extent in New York. The State Courts and tbe United States Supreme Court have concurred in numerous decisions which hold that the abolition of grade crossings may be ordered at the expense of the railroads. See numerous cases cited in Wilson v. Railroad, 142 N. C., at p. 349, and Cooper v. Railroad, 140 N. C., at p. 229.
The act of 1899, ch. 164,. now Revisal, sec. 1097 (2), confers on the Corporation Commission power “to require the raising or lowering of a track at any crossing where deemed necessary.” This is re-enacted and emphasized. Laws 1907, ch. 469, sec. 1 (c).
*36The laws and the courts are not solely for the protection of property rights, but for enforcement as well of the constitutional guarantee of the protection of life and limb. This Court has performed this duty in the Greenlee and Troxler cases, 122 N. C., 977, and 124 N. C., 189, which held that the absence of automatic car couplers is negligence per se — a negligence which is now punishable by act of Congress (1893, ch. 196; 3 U. S. Compiled Statutes, 3114) ; also, by a similar holding as to the lack of a “block system” (Stewart v. Railroad, 137 N. C., 687), which was repeated and reiterated in the same case (141 N. C., 253) ; and such system is now required by statute also. Laws 1907, ch; 469, sec. 1 (b). There are other decisions of this Court which might also be cited in which we have sought to protect the lives and limbs of those exposed to unnecessary danger by the application of familiar principles, or have called the attention of the Legislature to defects in the laws. This matter • of abolishing grade crossings near populous towns is on the same footing as car couplers and block systems. As Lord Chancellor Erskine observed when at the bar, “Morality comes in the cold abstract from the pulpit, but men smart practically under its lessons when juries and judges are the teachers.”
The courts cannot be ignorant, nor should they feign to be, of matters well known to every intelligent person. We know, from the reports of the railroads themselves, as tabulated and published by the Interstate Commerce Commission, as required by act of Congress, that last year 95,000 persons were injured and 10,000 were killed — a total of 105,000 people killed and wounded by the railroads of the United States, as against a total of 1,685 killed and wounded in our army in the war with Spain. In the last ten years the injured and killed by railroads in this country would make a procession of nearly 1,000,000 people, most of whom had others dependent upon them. That this immense amount of suffering and death is largely due to mismanagement and recklessness in the *37railroad authorities is evidenced by the fact, equally well known, that in Europe, where there must also be some unavoidable accidents and some negligence, the ratio of casualties on the railroads in proportion to the number of passengers and employees is less than one-twentieth of what it is in this country.
Whatever the courts can do to sustain the constitutional protection of life and person to every citizen they should do. We have done so as to automatic couplers and the block system. On such an occasion as this, of a double death'at a crossing, it is not amiss to call attention to this evil also. It may be, and doubtless is, cheaper for the railroads to pay for those killed and wounded than to take efficient steps to prevent these lamentable casualties. But considerations of humanity should have some weight. That full nineteen-twentieths of these casualties are avoidable the above figures for European railroads conclusively show. And is there no responsibility upon the authorities of the counties and towns where dangerous crossings are located to apply to the railroad officials to raise or lower their tracks at those points ? If a reasonable and just application of this kind is refused, the county or town ’authorities can and should apply to the Corporation Commission, which is vested with full and complete power to compel the raising or lowering of the track, to remove all danger to those using the public roads. This has been done by the authorities of Wake County as to several crossings at or near Baleigh, where the street or county road, now passes under the railroad track. Their example might well be followed elsewhere. In a government avowedly of and for the people some consideration should be paid to the safety of the life and limb of the citizen.