Feb 23, 1907

[NW Mailing List]

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.