Part 1

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RAILROAD ACCIDENTS

THEIR CAUSE AND PREVENTION

BY

R. C. RICHARDS

Published by

THE ASSOCIATION OF RAILWAY CLAIM AGENTS

1906

COPYRIGHT, 1906 BY R. C. RICHARDS

GIFT OF O. A. MOORE

Introduction

Railroad Accidents

Their Cause and Prevention

Much has been said and written during recent years about the increasing number of railroad accidents in this country--their cause and what action should be taken by the government, the railroads and the employees to reduce them and the consequent loss of life and limb resulting therefrom. Believing that if the cause of our many accidents were properly understood more care would be taken by the corporations, employees and persons at fault to reduce the number, I shall try to point out in the following pages what investigation has shown me to be the cause of many accidents and how their reoccurrence could, I think, be prevented.

In the transaction of the business of a railroad its first and highest duty is to the passengers, to carry them safely and speedily; next, to take care of the property entrusted to it for transportation, and for which it is practically an insurer against everything but the act of God or the public enemy, and deliver it with reasonable dispatch to the consignee in practically the same condition as that in which it is received.

It is a self-evident proposition that the nearer the railroads come to performing this duty, the fewer losses and claims for damages they will have to pay, and, as a matter of course, the more money there will be left with which to pay wages, interest, dividends, and make improvements. So it behooves all, who are working for those wages, to do everything they can to help carry on the business properly and correctly in order that the interest of the companies hiring them, as well as their individual interest, will be subserved, and for the more important reason of causing as little suffering, pain, and sorrow to those who by accident may be maimed or killed, which always brings trouble and sorrow to the victim as well as to his family, and frequently results in untold suffering and privation to the widows and children.

The report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that for the year ending June 30, 1904, there were

441 passengers killed. 3,632 employees killed. 839 not trespassers killed. 5,105 trespassers killed. 9,111 passengers injured. 67,067 employees injured. 2,499 not trespassers injured. 5,194 trespassers injured.

Making 10,017 killed and 83,871 injured, or a total of killed and injured of 93,888, many times over the casualties of our last war, and all the roads seem to have done their share of this havoc.

We should strive to see if in the coming year we cannot reduce the number, so that the casualties reported, and consequent loss to the companies, will be reduced, considering the number of employees, mileage, earnings, number of trains run, persons and property transported, and the territory traversed, and for the purpose of bringing this matter before you in a proper light I will call attention to a few of the many accidents which have recently occurred, which, with proper care and the use of good judgment, would have been avoided and fewer persons left to go through life crippled, fewer homes made desolate and fatherless, and sometimes motherless, and at the same time the money which has been necessarily paid out to settle the claims saved to the companies, and, consequently, just so much more money left in the treasury to pay for wages, interest, dividends, and betterments.

Taking into consideration the safety appliances installed by the railroads since 1898, the improvement in track and equipment, and the increase in wages paid, with even the same degree of care on the part of employees, the number of accidents should have decreased, but on the contrary they show an actual percentage of increase higher than that of earnings, and if the employees are onto their jobs they ought to and must find a way to reduce the number of such cases and consequent expense to the companies.

For the purpose of showing that the employees are the persons most vitally interested in this matter, as upon them falls the major part of the fatalities and injuries resulting from such accidents and upon themselves and families the suffering and pain which always comes after them, while upon the companies falls the immense and increasing financial drain, following their wakes, as well as loss of prestige and public criticism which necessarily follow, and which is increasing every day, I have prepared the following statement.

1. The percentage of employees to the number of passengers transported during the year ending June 30, 1904, was one for each 552.

2. The percentage of passengers killed (441) to the whole number of persons reported killed in all classes (10,017) was 4 per cent.

3. The percentage of passengers injured (9,111) to the whole number of persons reported injured in all classes (83,871) was 11 per cent.

4. The percentage of passengers injured (9,111) to the number transported (715,419,682) was about one in each 80,000.

5. The percentage of passengers killed (441) to the number transported was about one in every 1,600,000.

6. The percentage of employees injured (67,067) to the whole number of employees (1,296,121) was about one in every 19.

7. The percentage of employees killed (3,632) to the whole number employed (1,296,121) was about one in 360.

8. The percentage of employees killed (3,632) to the whole number reported killed in all classes (10,017) was about 36 per cent.

9. The percentage of employees injured (67,067) to the whole number reported injured in all classes (83,871) was 80 per cent.

10. The percentage of employees (300,000) engaged in the hazardous part of the business such as train, engine and yardmen to the whole number employed (1,296,121) was 25 per cent.

11. Percentage of those engaged in the hazardous part of the work, who were killed (2,343), to the whole number of employees reported killed (3,632), was 64 per cent.

12. The percentage of those engaged in the hazardous part of the work who were injured (32,345) to the whole number of employees injured (67,067) was 48 per cent.

An examination of the statistics published by the Commission also shows that the number of accidents depends not so much on the actual length of track of a railroad in miles, but upon the density of its traffic and of the population of the territory through which it runs, for illustration take one division on a system that runs through a thickly settled country, that has five per cent of the actual mileage of the system and fifteen per cent of the train mileage, and another division in the same system that runs through a sparsely settled country, that has ten per cent of the actual mileage of the system and five per cent of the train mileage, and it is a well-known fact that the percentage of accidents on the former will be many times that on the latter;

That the heavier the traffic the greater need there is of more care being taken in employing and educating the right kind of men to operate the trains; and

That with denser traffic there should come more and better supervision to insure observance of the rules adopted for the safe operation of trains and that the increase in quantity and quality of that supervision should at least equal in ratio the increase in traffic. Indeed, I believe that when this is done many of the troubles and difficulties the railroads now labor under will pass away, and that the additional expense caused by such increase will be saved many times over by a general reduction in operating expenses, especially in waste and damage.

Accidents should be divided into four classes:

_First._ Unavoidable accidents, or those caused by the act of God, the public enemy, or by some miscreant who takes up a rail, misplaces a switch, or puts an obstruction on the track.

_Second._ Accidents to passengers, outsiders trespassing or not trespassing, caused by the carelessness or wantonness of the injured or some other person for whose act the railroad is not liable, or by the failure on the part of the State or municipality to make and enforce proper laws and ordinances to prevent stoning trains and trespassing on the premises and cars of the companies.

_Third._ Those caused by the want of care, foresight, or supervision on the part of the management of the company.

_Fourth._ Those caused by the carelessness, thoughtlessness, or neglect of employees.

Neither employees nor company can be held to blame or can prevent accidents resulting from the first and second causes, and fortunately for the reputation as well as the treasury of the companies over one-half of all the fatalities and a large proportion of the seriously injured come under the second class, and until the life and limb of a trespasser (10 per cent or 1,000 of the 10,000 killed and injured on the railroads of this country every year being children under fourteen years of age) are considered to be of some value to their families and to the State, they will not only continue to occur, but will increase each year as our population and traffic grow.

Accidents caused by carelessness, thoughtlessness, or neglect of employees are the large majority of all that happen, and if we could eliminate them, or one-half of them, there would be little cause for complaint on the part of the management of the companies, or criticism on the part of the public, and the claim agent would have a bed of roses instead of the busiest and hardest worked office on the road, and I believe that when the employees really understand the matter many of them will be eliminated.

We should bear in mind that it is not the great train accidents that make the large majority of the total deaths and injuries on the railroads of this country, about which so much is said in the public press, but it is the little cases that are unheralded in the press, or in the courts, that make the totals so large; the little things that are happening every day, on every railroad in the country, which go on happening every year in the same old way, and they are the cases which could and should be avoided by the exercise of greater care and thoughtfulness--more of them come from thoughtlessness than any other cause. My experience leads me irresistibly to the conclusion that after all it is the _man_, not the safety appliance, that we must depend on to prevent accidents, as has been demonstrated by any number of cases that have occurred at points where the track has been lined with safety appliances.

The Cause

INJURIES TO PASSENGERS

Injuries to passengers for which employees are at fault, and which could and should be avoided, result from collisions, derailments, improper handling and management of trains and stations, and I will, by way of illustration, cite a few cases which have occurred and tell you how, in my opinion, they might have been avoided.

We will first take those caused by collisions:

At Forest Station, April 2, in which 3 passengers were killed and 26 injured, caused by train No. 112, upon which they were riding, being run into by engine No. 405, hauling train No. 2, Engineman Jackson, at 4 p.m.

Charles Early and ten other passengers injured May 21, at 8 a.m., caused by engine 109, hauling train 477, colliding with engine 309 backing a train to yards; latter train had been stopped five minutes, engine standing under 89th street viaduct, contrary to rule 31. Smoke blew down on track, hiding engine and train.

In a dense fog and on a part of the division and at a time when trains were thick, with a knowledge that he had followed No. 112 all the way from Thornton, the engineman was so careless as to run by two automatic signals set at danger, a flagman, and into No. 112, and three lives go out and 20 odd are injured. Could anything be more reckless? Do any of you want to ride behind that kind of runner or be on a train in front of him, even if you have your life insured and your home paid for? Will we not all agree that such a man is unsafe and unfit for the service? And in view of the dense fog and the number of trains moving, should not trains have been blocked a station apart? It is an absolute protection against accident, which the time interval is not. And when you enginemen see a signal against you, think of the wrecks you have known of since you entered the service, and STOP; take no chances. If you can't see the signal, if your view is obstructed by smoke or steam so that you can't see the track beyond the smoke or steam, stop or slow down until you know it safe to proceed. And don't do as was done in the second case mentioned above, but slow down to such a speed that you can stop within the range of your vision. In case of doubt always take the safe course. If you know a man with defective vision and so little regard for the lives of others as to try to remain in the service with that defect, you owe it as a duty to yourself, to your family, the passengers, and other employees, as well as to the company, to report him to the proper officer before and not after an accident occurs. Some day there will be a law requiring frequent examination of the vision of trainmen, but until that time comes we should all do the best we can to guard against such men.

Next we come to accidents caused by making a switch of cars containing passengers without the engine being attached to the car:

Thomas H. Norton, injured Oct. 20, in Sixtieth St. yards; caused by the Pullman car Winona, in which he was traveling, being kicked down against a coach standing at the other end of track, by switch engine 731; and when switch crew tried to stop the car they claimed they could not do so with hand brakes, although they were in good condition.

Everyone knows that it is unsafe to handle a car containing passengers without the engine being coupled to it and air-brake in use, and that Rule 10[1] expressly prohibits such work, yet in this case it was done by men long in the service, who probably had done the same thing before without accident and without being caught, so they chanced it once too often, and the cost in this case would pay many times over for the time they had saved before. It is just as unsafe to switch caboose cars in which train crews are resting or cars loaded with horses and cattle or emigrant movables in that way, and it ought to be stopped. If it was, there would not be the injuries to trainmen or damages to live stock that we have now from that cause.

[1] Copies of all rules referred to will be found in the Appendix.

We all have no end of trouble with circuses and theatrical troupes traveling in their own cars, many of which ought to be in the scrap heap. These cars should never be accepted, no matter who is in them or what notice you may have received about the runs to be made with them, unless the brakes, running gear, and everything connected with them are in good repair, but when you do take them, handle them as carefully as if they contained dynamite, and get them off the line without accident. When you find such a car on a track which you are obliged to use--it should when possible be set on a track not used for switching--either to move it or some other car, handle it with the greatest care; don't do as was done at Harrison just a short time ago when

Laura Jameson, with a theatrical troupe, was in car "Pomfret," Nov. 9th, which was coupled onto by engine No. 402 with such force that she was thrown from the chair in which she was sitting, bruising and injuring her.

Neither would any of the following cases, caused by careless handling, have happened:

Mrs. R. A. Storrs, passenger injured at Whiteford, Aug. 8th, at 7:20 a.m. Engine was pulling train back in the yard and ran in on track that had some cars on it and collided with them, the switch having been left open.

W. R. Thomas, injured at Winton, at 2:50 p.m., Dec. 10, by reason of standing up near stove in way-car when two cars were coupled on train, he was thrown against stove and onto floor.

John A. Klohs, stockman, was riding in the caboose of extra stock train east, at Yale, June 4th; got up to take off his coat; the train was coupled up with so much force that he was thrown over the stove and his ankle injured.

Now we will take up cases caused by careless loading and unloading of freight from mixed trains:

It would not seem necessary to have to tell anyone that timbers or telegraph poles ought not to be unloaded from moving trains carrying passengers, or from any moving train, and yet that is exactly what was done, when

John A. Owen, W. A. Stead, Martin Kjoelseth, Andrew Thorsen, and C. G. Strombeck, passengers on train No. 82, were injured at Wallace, Aug. 2, by reason of the caboose in which they were riding colliding with some cars on the side track, caused by Anderson, a telegraph lineman, unloading some poles from a car in the train upon which they were riding while it was moving, one of which struck a switch target, opened switch, and caboose ran into side track and collided with cars.

And when you have a car loaded with logs in your train see that they are secure. If you do an accident like the one near Hamlin, January 8th, won't occur:

Julius Lewinsky, passenger, was injured while riding in coach; chain on one of the cars gave away, and logs fell off and were forced through bottom of the coach, striking his left leg.

It would seem to be a simple matter to see that logs, water pipes, machinery, or other property liable to fall from cars are properly secured before car is taken in the train, and so avoid such accidents. Why not do it?

When in a terrible rain-storm you are running with a slow order over a track which is being repaired, don't do it at a speed of 50 or 60 miles an hour, if you value your life and the lives of those in the cars behind you. If you don't value them, don't do it because it is dangerous and your orders tell you not to, and because your family will suffer if you get killed in the attempt and the company's property will be damaged, and don't, under such, or any other, circumstances, run by a station five minutes ahead of time contrary to Rule 4, and yet that is just what was done on the night of July 2, when

James Williams, engineman; Charles Jones, fireman; and two tramps were killed; and F. C. Stodmeister, brakeman; W. W. McAllister, baggageman; C. W. H. Brown, Charles Brown, and A. Parsons, porters; W. J. Smith, telegraph operator; Mrs. Miller, Alice Eager, and Mrs. David, passengers, and Thomas King, a tramp, were injured, 1-1/2 miles west of Janeway by train No. 8 running off derail and knocking down the tower.

When you get a bulletin prohibiting your running down certain hills or around curves faster than 30 miles an hour, don't do it at 40 or 50 miles an hour, as it is unsafe, and yet that is exactly what was done May 12 near Wilkes, and resulted in the derailment of freight train No. 18, and

William Little, brakeman, was killed, M. J. McWheeney, Geo. Orneson, Jr., O. A. Dalseth, C. F. Shoelkopf, Geo. V. Hickock, and C. W. Doner, passengers, injured.

A bulletin was issued by Superintendent Davis prohibiting trains going down this hill faster than 30 miles an hour. From the statements of the train crew it would appear that no attention had been paid to this bulletin, and, from what the passengers say, it has been customary for a long time for trains coming into Wilkes from Notman and Guilford, if in sight of each other, to make a race to see which train could get there first, so as to get out of Wilkes for Joppa without delay.

Now, there was no excuse for the engineman and conductor not complying with the order. They both got off without injury, as the parties to blame for such accidents generally do. Neither was there any excuse for the train dispatcher not knowing that the order was being disregarded daily, as the train sheets would tell him that, and he should have stopped it. To my mind, he was just as guilty as the engineman and conductor, and should have received the same punishment. And when disregard of such orders and bulletins are not winked at, until an accident happens, there will be fewer cases of failure to observe them.

Don't try to run around curves 50 or 60 miles an hour, as a train I was riding on a few weeks ago did and went in the ditch; neither should freight or passenger trains run over interlocking switches faster than 15 and 25 miles an hour, respectively, because it is not safe to do so, and Rule 5 says you must not. Conductors, who are in supreme command of the train, should pull the air on any engineman who is running too fast around curves, over bad places, or through stations, and when you get in, report the matter to your superintendent, as reckless running should not and will not be tolerated.

Next we have the accidents resulting from occasional derailments, which were not serious, but might have been, and it is the cause, as well as the result, we want to eliminate, such as:

Mrs. K. Smith and four other passengers, train No. 6, which was derailed at Heilprin, Sept. 3. The train was very crowded and these women were standing up at the time of the accident and were injured.

Mrs. Jessie Doan and five other passengers, injured Oct. 11, caused by train No. 15 being derailed one-half mile east of Morse station, caused by reason of a brake-shoe on the tank of the engine coming off; this brake-shoe had an old defect.

J. E. Fitzsimmons, passenger, injured near Hedley, by derailment of train No. 316, on which he was riding.

None of which would have happened if some one had not failed to perform his duty, and when every accident, no matter how slight, is investigated by an expert--who reports not to the officer who may be primarily at fault, but to the chief operating officer--to ascertain the actual cause and find a remedy, such cases will be largely eliminated.

The same is true of injuries like the following, resulting from trains breaking in two:

R. B. Janeway, passenger, and J. P. Mitchell, baggageman, injured Jan. 9th near Gray. Train No. 280 broke in two and rear end ran into head end.

George Burgan and W. L. Smith and two other stockmen, injured at Newport, Neb., Nov. 21st; train broke in two, and when the two parts came together these men, who were sitting on the locker in way-car, were knocked down.

Another class of accidents which are of altogether too frequent occurrence are injuries caused by trains not stopping long enough for passengers to alight.

Frequently the persons injured are old people not accustomed to traveling, who are necessarily slow in their movements, and of whom we should take greater care. Think how you or I would feel if our mother or grandmother, if we were fortunate enough to have them with us still, were injured just because a conductor or brakeman didn't have forethought or decency enough to give them time to get off. If you will do that, there will not be a procession of such cases as the following, and the companies will be so much ahead.

Mrs. A. J. Denman, passenger from Norwood to Avon, injured at Garwin, Sept. 7th; caused by the train not stopping long enough for her to alight.

Mrs. C. E. Collinwood and C. Collinwood, passengers on train No. 32, from Omaha, injured at Hamburg, Oct. 17th; caused by train starting before they had an opportunity to get off.