Feb 23, 1907

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Fri Feb 23 00:00:00 EST 2007


RAILWAY CASUALTIES

High Water Mark Reached In Loss of Human Life

Washington, Feb 23 -- Statistics covering railroad accidents that
have taken place during the past six months prove that the high water
mark has been reached in the loss of human life by the railways of
this country in their mad rush to annihilate time and defy all the
safeguards that should be thrown around a naturally hazardous
business. The recent appalling accidents have attracted the attention
of Congress, but nothing can be done at this session. There is a
determination, however, that at the next session, which will be the
long session of Congress, this whole subject of protection to the
traveling public shall be gone into and legislation enacted that will
provide in fact that which exists today only in theory.
A careful review of the accidents of the last six months, not
counting the tragedy on the New York Central, the most recent of
railroad disasters, in which an electric train running at high speed
was thrown down an embankment, shows that 351 persons have been
killed and 474 injured. The figures with regard to the New York
Central cannot be given yet with precision owing to the condition of
many of the injured, but upon present conditions the total is brought
up to 375 killed and more than 600 injured.
These accidents are confined to no particular portion of the
country. They have come to those roads noted for their careful and
painstaking management as well as to those whose equipment has been
permitted to wear out and where the consideration of the value of
human life is but slightly entertained. Take the Pennsylvania and the
Baltimore and Ohio railroads as instances of the number of deaths and
injuries resulting from railroad travel during the past six months,
the news dispatches to the papers prove that 84 were killed while
traveling on Pennsylvania trains and 109 while on the Baltimore and
Ohio trains. The Pennsylvania maimed and injured in the same period,
42 persons and the Baltimore and Ohio, 106. This is the record of two
of the great roads of the country. On the "Big Four," in Indiana, in
the single day of January 10, in two accidents, 52 were killed and 45 injured.
With such appalling figures indicating an apparently reckless
disregard for human life, it is little wonder that those charged with
the enactment of laws that ought to protect the people should be
aroused. Some argue that this enormous loss of life is due to the
fact that but little attention is paid to equipment, trackage
facilities, etc., and the industries of the management of the roads
devoted more to the manipulation of the stock, using the railroads
under their as mere pawns in the game of high finance, Such accidents
as have happened recently are very likely to shake faith in American
railway methods and may lead to the most drastic legislation.




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