Total, 106 killed and 112 injured.
The total number of passengers conveyed during the half-year amounted
to 34,924,469.”
The greatest number of accidents was on the Lancashire and Yorkshire:
2,793,764 passengers were conveyed in the term specified, and 17
individuals were killed and 24 injured. On the York, Newcastle, and
Berwick, 15 were killed and injured, 1,613,123 passengers having
been conveyed. On the Midland, 2,658,903 having been the number of
passengers, 9 persons were killed and 7 injured. On the Great Western,
conveying 1,220,507-1/2 passengers, 2 individuals were killed and 1
injured. On the London and Blackwall, with 1,200,514 passengers, there
was 1 man killed and 16 injured. The London and Greenwich supplied
the means of locomotion to 1,126,237 persons, and none were killed
and none were injured. These deaths on the railway, for the half-year
cited above, are in the proportion of 106 to 34,924,469, or 1 person
killed to every 329,476; and the 106 killed include 2 suicides and
the deaths of 28 trespassers and others. The total number of persons
who suffered from accidents was 218, which is in the proportion of 1
accident to every 160,203 persons travelling; and when the injuries
arising from this mode of conveyance are contrasted with the loss of
life by shipwreck, which, as before stated, amounts to 1 in every 203
individuals, the comparative safety of railway over marine travelling
must appear most extraordinary. Mr. Porter’s calculation as to the
number of stage-coach travellers (which I cite under that head) shows
that my estimates are far from extravagant.