Introduction
Railroad Accidents
Their Cause and Prevention
Much has been said and written during recent years about theincreasing number of railroad accidents in this country—their causeand what action should be taken by the government, the railroads andthe employees to reduce them and the consequent loss of life and limbresulting therefrom. Believing that if the cause of our many accidentswere properly understood more care would be taken by the corporations,employees and persons at fault to reduce the number, I shall try topoint out in the following pages what investigation has shown me to bethe 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 highestduty is to the passengers, to carry them safely and speedily; next, totake care of the property entrusted to it for transportation, and forwhich it is practically an insurer against everything but the act ofGod or the public enemy, and deliver it with reasonable dispatch tothe consignee in practically the same condition as that in which it isreceived.
It is a self-evident proposition that the nearer the railroads come toperforming this duty, the fewer losses and claims for damages theywill have to pay, and, as a matter of course, the more money therewill be left with which to pay wages, interest, dividends, and makeimprovements. So it behooves all, who are working for those wages, todo everything they can to help carry on the business properly andcorrectly in order that the interest of the companies hiring them, aswell as their individual interest, will be subserved, and for the moreimportant reason of causing as little suffering, pain, and sorrow tothose who by accident may be maimed or killed, which always bringstrouble and sorrow to the victim as well as to his family, andfrequently results in untold suffering and privation to the widows andchildren.
The report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that for theyear ending June 30, 1904, there were
Making 10,017 killed and 83,871 injured, or a total of killed andinjured of 93,888, many times over the casualties of our last war, andall the roads seem to have done their share of this havoc.
We should strive to see if in the coming year we cannot reduce thenumber, so that the casualties reported, and consequent loss to thecompanies, will be reduced, considering the number of employees,mileage, earnings, number of trains run, persons and propertytransported, and the territory traversed, and for the purpose ofbringing this matter before you in a proper light I will callattention to a few of the many accidents which have recently occurred,which, with proper care and the use of good judgment, would have beenavoided and fewer persons left to go through life crippled, fewerhomes made desolate and fatherless, and sometimes motherless, and atthe same time the money which has been necessarily paid out to settlethe claims saved to the companies, and, consequently, just so muchmore