================================+================================
| 1908
+---------------+----------------
Class of Accident | Passengers | Employes
+------+--------+-------|--------
|Killed| Injured| Killed| Injured
--------------------------------+------|--------+-------+--------
Collisions | 111 | 4,284 | 303 | 3,428
Derailments | 54 | 3,057 | 260 | 2,065
Miscellaneous train accidents, | | | |
including locomotive | | | |
boiler explosions | -- | 89 | 79 | 1,325
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total train accidents | 165 | 7,430 | 642 | 6,818
+------+--------+-------+--------
Coupling or uncoupling | -- | -- | 239 | 3,121
While doing other work | | | |
about trains or while | | | |
attending switches | -- | -- | 206 | 15,991
Coming in contact with | | | |
overhead bridges, structures | | | |
at side of track, etc | 4 | 37 | 110 | 1,353
Falling from cars or engines | | | |
or while getting on or off | 159 | 2,501 | 668 | 11,735
Other causes | 78 | 2,677 | 1,493 | 17,326
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total (other than train | | | |
accidents) | 241 | 5,215 | 2,716 | 49,526
+------+--------+-------+--------
Total (all classes) | 406 | 12,645 | 3,358 | 56,344
| | | |
Totals in 1907: | | | |
In train accidents | 410 | 9,070 | 1,011 | 8,924
In other than train accidents | 237 | 4,527 | 3,342 | 53,765
+------+--------|-------+--------
All classes of accidents | 647 | 13,597 | 4,353 | 62,689
--------------------------------+------+--------+-------+--------
The same cause which accounted for the remarkable recession of
railway casualties in 1908 was still operative in a more marked
degree throughout 1909, as evidenced in the above table. Here is
shown a reduction from 1907 of 68% in fatalities to passengers in
train accidents and of nearly 50% in those to employes. Even in all
classes of accidents the decrease is almost as striking. A drop from
647 to 335 in fatalities to passengers and from 4,353 to 2,456 in
fatalities to employes, resulting from whatever cause, should be a
matter for national congratulation and thanksgiving.
That the facts herein set forth should have no lesson for national
authorities beyond moving them to appeal for additional control
of safety appliances is nothing short of a national scandal. As
for safety devices, the railways in 1907 were practically as well
equipped as in 1909. The percentage operated under the protection of
block signals was 27.1% in 1909 against 26.2% in 1907, a difference
inappreciable as compared with the recorded difference in fatalities.
The government inspectors reported the equipment in better condition
in 1907 than for any previous year by fully 30%, and yet that was the
worst year in the annals of railway accidents.
An English writer (H. Raynor Wilson), his vision unobscured by the
propinquity of patent devices, has placed his finger on the true
cause of the reduction in railway accidents in the United States in
1908 and 1909 when writing in "The Safety of British Railways" he
says:
"Experience in America during the period of depression that has
prevailed since the summer of 1907 shows that fewer accidents
occur during such times. There are not so many goods trains,
the men are less 'pushed,' they work fewer hours, and the
careless and indifferent are weeded out."
But we do not have to go to England for a convincing analysis of the
causes of the remarkable decrease in accidents on American railways
in 1908 and 1909. In the presence of similar conditions Statistician
Adams in his official report for 1894 penned the following:
"Another explanation may be suggested for this decrease in
casualties to railway employes. The character of equipment
used during the year covered by this report was undoubtedly of
a higher grade than in previous years. A large number of old
cars of abandoned type were destroyed during the year, while
there was an increase in the better grades of cars equipped
with train brakes and automatic couplers. This, however, is
a suggestion merely, there being no statistical proof of any
relation between a higher grade equipment and the decrease of
accidents to employes. It is also probable, in view of the fact
that liability to accident is increased by the employment of
the shiftless and unskilled, that the grade of labor was raised
through the discharge of so large a number of employes. This
latter suggestion finds support in the fact that the ratio of
casualties in the Southern States, where the grade of labor is
somewhat inferior, has for a series of years been higher than
in the Northern and Eastern States."
With a continuation of similar conditions as to traffic and labor
throughout 1895, the Official Statistician, having not yet accepted
the theory that violation of rules, carelessness and negligence are
amenable to patent appliances, emphasized the concluding suggestion
of his 1894 report in these terms:
"From the above comparative statement it is clear that the year
ending June 30, 1895, is more satisfactory, so far as accidents
are concerned, than any previous year. Reference was made in
last year's report to the fact that the marked reduction in
the pay roll of the railways, by which the incompetent and
inefficient were dropped from the railway service, and the
consignment to the scrap heap of equipment worn out or out
of date, were largely responsible for the greater safety in
railway travel and railway employment shown by the statistics
of the year. The result of raising the character of the
railway service and grade of railway equipment is yet more
marked during the present year, and to this must be added the
fact that the demands upon the passenger service during the
present year have been somewhat decreased. It is also worthy of
suggestion, although the facts yet at command are not adequate
for confident assertion, that the fitting of equipment with
automatic devices is beginning to show beneficial results."
From that year to this the fitting of equipment with automatic
devices has proceeded with uninterrupted despatch. Where in 1895 only
27.7% of it was equipped with train brakes and 31.3% with automatic
couplers, in 1907 the Commission reported 94.4% equipped with train
brakes and 99% with automatic couplers. In every form of mechanical
safety device the railway equipment of 1907 was incomparably better
than in 1895, and yet the number of fatal accidents to employes in
1907 exceeded those in 1895 seven to three and to passengers three
and four-fifths to one. In the matter of deaths in coupling accidents
alone are "beneficial results" traceable to automatic safety devices.
The character of the men in the service, their automatic observance
of regulations, intelligence and alert devotion to duty are the best
preventives of railway accidents, and the conditions prevalent after
the panics of 1893 and 1907 are conducive to these conditions.
It is not likely, however, that the American people will welcome
experiences, even in homeopathic doses, such as we knew in 1904,
as the cure for railway accidents. But from the lessons of every
depression, as read in the statistics of railway fatalities, the
American people have a right to expect their representatives in
federal and state legislatures to learn that the prevention of
railway accidents rests on the intelligence, vigilance and experience
of the man and not with the multiplication of devices. Automatic
obedience to rules will prevent more accidents than all the safety
devices that cumber the shelves of the Patent Office at Washington.
Invention, however, is easier to the average American than plain
everyday observance of rules. Besides the selling of devices to
railways is a profitable business.
ACCIDENTS INCREASE IN 1909-10.
Accident Bulletin No. 33 for the first quarter of the current fiscal
year shows the unfavorable turn in casualties always attendant on
reviving business. Given in brief the figures are as follows:
CASUALTIES TO PERSONS, JULY, AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 1909.
-----------------------------------+--------+--------
| Killed | Injured
-----------------------------------+--------+--------
To passengers: | |
From accidents to trains | 56 | 2,325
By accidents from other causes | 48 | 2,088
| |
To employes: | |
From accidents to trains | 137 | 1,427
By accidents from other causes | 611 | 13,401
+--------+--------
Total classes | | 19,241
Corresponding quarter 1908 | | 16,545
-----------------------------------+--------+--------
As this report goes to press, the Commission, through the Associated
Press, has issued a summary of Accident Bulletin No. 34 which states
that there were 1,073 persons (105 passengers and 969 employes)
killed and 21,849 injured on the steam railways of the United States
during the three months ending December 31, 1909.
This shows an increase over the corresponding quarter last year of
275 killed and 5,003 injured. For the same quarter in 1907 the killed
were 1,092; in 1906, 1,430; and in 1905, 1,109. As the quarter ending
December 31, 1909, saw railway traffic at its highest pressure, it
shows an improvement over the records of 1907, '06 and '05.
The number injured is the highest ever recorded for three months,
surpassing the quarter ending September 30, 1907, however, by only
126. But as explained elsewhere, "injuries" is too elastic a term for
comparative statistics.
ACCIDENTS TO OTHER PERSONS.
Where the quarterly Bulletins of the Commission make no mention
of the accidents to persons other than passengers and employes,
the annual reports of the carriers supply the missing data as to
"Other Persons." These include casualties at highway crossings, to
trespassers, persons walking, standing or sleeping on the track,
workmen in railway shops and all other accidents directly or
indirectly connected with the transportation industry. Accidents
to "Other Persons" cover over 60% of all fatalities charged to the
railways and of these over 80% are to trespassers.
The returns to this Bureau show the following casualties to persons
other than passengers and employes during the year ending June 30,
1909:
==================================+========+========
Class | Killed | Injured
----------------------------------+--------+--------
Trespassers (including suicides) | 4,919 | 5,697
Not trespassing | 820 | 3,069
+--------+--------
Total other persons | 5,739 | 8,766
----------------------------------+--------+--------
These figures warrant the estimate that the total number of
trespassers and other persons killed and injured in the United States
in 1909 through the operation of railways was approximately 5,978 and
9,132 respectively. This marks a decrease from 1908, but not nearly
so great as in the case of passengers and employes.
FATALITIES IN RAILWAY ACCIDENTS SINCE 1888.
We are now enabled to present a complete statement of the fatalities
connected with the transportation industry since the Commission began
compiling casualty statistics in 1888. The figures in this summary
are confined to fatalities, for the reason given by the Commission
that it "is well known the term 'injury,' as used in statistics of
this character, is elastic." As a matter of fact the terms injury and
casualty are so individually or locally indefinite and variable as to
have little or no statistical value.
PASSENGERS, EMPLOYES AND OTHER PERSONS KILLED IN RAILWAY ACCIDENTS
FROM 1888 TO 1908.
=========+==========+=========+===========================+=======
| | | Other Persons |
Year |Passengers|Employes +-----------+---------------+ Total
| | |Trespassers|Not Trespassing|
---------+----------+---------+-----------+---------------+-------
1909 | 335 | 2,456 | 5,124 | 854 | 8,769
1908 | 406 | 3,358 | 5,560 | 940 | 10,264
1907 | 647 | 4,353 | 5,612 | 1,044 | 11,656
1906 | 359 | 3,929 | 5,381 | 949 | 10,618
1905 | 537 | 3,361 | 4,865 | 940 | 9,703
1904 | 441 | 3,632 | 5,105 | 868 | 10,046
1903 | 355 | 3,606 | 5,000 | 879 | 9,840
1902 | 345 | 2,969 | 4,403 | 871 | 8,588
1901 | 282 | 2,675 | 4,601 | 897 | 8,455
1900 | 249 | 2,550 | 4,346 | 660 | 7,865
1899 | 239 | 2,210 | 4,040 | 634 | 7,123
1898 | 221 | 1,958 | 4,063 | 617 | 6,859
1897 | 222 | 1,693 | 3,919 | 603 | 6,437
1896 | 181 | 1,861 | 3,811 | 595 | 6,448
1895 | 170 | 1,811 | 3,631 | 524 | 6,136
1894 | 324 | 1,823 | 3,720 | 580 | 6,447
1893 | 299 | 2,627 | 3,673 | 647 | 7,346
1892 | 376 | 2,554 | 3,603 | 614 | 7,147
1891 | 293 | 2,660 | 3,465 | 611 | 7,029
1890 | 286 | 2,451 | 3,062 | 536 | 6,335
1889 | 310 | 1,972 | Not | (a)3,541 | 5,823
1888 | 315 | 2,070 | given | (a)2,897 | 5,282
---------+----------+---------+-----------+---------------+-------
(a) Includes trespassers.
To the most casual student this table illustrates how railway
accidents increase and decline with periods of business activity and
recession. The effect of the panic of 1893-94 is seen in the decrease
in accidents in 1895 and 1896. The temporary slowing up in 1904 is
reflected in fewer fatalities in 1905, and a drop of 11% in the
business of 1908 was followed by a decreased death roll of 12% for
that year and 25% in 1909.
RELATION OF ACCIDENTS TO PASSENGER TRAFFIC.
The relation of railway accidents to passenger travel is most
accurately measured in the following statement of the number of
passengers carried one mile to one killed in train accidents during
the years for which these statistics have been compiled:
PASSENGERS CARRIED ONE MILE TO ONE KILLED.
==========+===================+====================+===================
| Passengers Killed | Passengers Carried | Passengers Carried
Year | in | One Mile | One Mile
| Train Accidents | | to One Killed
----------+-------------------+--------------------+-------------------
1909 | 131(a) | 29,452,000,000 | 288,745,100
1908 | 165(b) | 29,082,836,944 | 196,505,648
1907 | 410 | 27,718,554,030 | 72,802,600
1906 | 182 | 25,167,240,831 | 183,702,488
1905 | 350 | 23,800,149,436 | 68,000,427
1904 | 270 | 21,923,213,536 | 81,197,087
1903 | 164 | 20,915,763,881 | 127,535,745
1902 | 170 | 19,689,937,620 | 115,823,162
1901 | 110 | 17,353,588,444 | 157,759,894
1900 | 93 | 16,038,076,200 | 172,463,183
1899 | 83 | 14,591,327,613 | 175,799,127
1898 | 74 | 13,379,930,004 | 180,809,864
1897 | 96 | 12,256,939,647 | 127,676,454
1896 | 41 | 13,049,007,233 | 318,268,469
1895 | 30 | 12,188,446,271 | 406,281,542
1894 | 162 | 14,289,445,893 | 88,206,456
1893 | 100 | 14,229,101,084 | 142,291,010
1892 | 195 | 13,362,898,299 | 68,522,555
1891 | 110 | 12,844,243,881 | 116,765,853
1890 | 113 | 11,847,785,617 | 104,847,660
1889 | 161 | 11,553,820,445 | 71,762,859
----------+-------------------+--------------------+-------------------
(a) Of these only 102 were passengers in the ordinary sense of
the term.
(b) Of these only 148 were passengers in the ordinary sense of
the term.
The student has to go back to the years of continued business
paralysis, 1895 and 1896, to find any record of immunity to
passengers from fatalities in train accidents at all comparable with
the conditions that prevailed in 1909.
DECREASED HAZARD TO TRAIN CREWS.
Never in the history of American railways has the occupation of the
men directly engaged in the operation of trains been as free from
fatalities as during the year 1909. This is proved by the following
statement showing the number of trainmen killed in all descriptions
of accidents since the figures have been compiled, with the ratio to
the number employed:
SUMMARY SHOWING NUMBER OF TRAINMEN KILLED IN RAILWAY ACCIDENTS 1889
TO 1909, WITH RATIO TO NUMBER EMPLOYED.
==========+==========+==========+===========+==========+==========
| | | Yard | | Number of
| Trainmen | Trainmen | Trainmen | All | Trainmen
| | in Yards | Switching | Trainmen | for One
| | | Crews | | Killed
----------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+----------
1889 | 1,179 | | | 1,179 | 117
1890 | 1,459 | | | 1,459 | 105
1891 | 1,533 | | | 1,533 | 104
1892 | 1,503 | | | 1,503 | 113
1893 | 1,567 | | | 1,567 | 115
1894 | 1,029 | | | 1,029 | 156
1895 | 1,017 | | | 1,017 | 155
1896 | 1,073 | | | 1,073 | 152
1897 | 976 | | | 976 | 165
1898 | 1,141 | | | 1,141 | 150
1899 | 1,155 | | | 1,155 | 155
1900 | 1,396 | | | 1,396 | 137
1901 | 1,537 | | | 1,537 | 136
1902 | 1,507 | | | 1,507 | 135
1903 | 2,021 | | | 2,021 | 123
1904 | 1,181 | 487 | 488 | 2,156 | 120
1905 | 1,155 | 386 | 493 | 2,034 | 133
1906 | 1,360 | 400 | 575 | 2,335 | 124
1907 | 1,507 | 459 | 630 | 2,596 | 125
1908 | 1,097 | 362 | 496 | 1,955 | 150
1909 | 789 | 270 | 313 | 1,372 | 202
----------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+----------
The figures of the Interstate Commerce Commission have only made
the division of trainmen shown above since 1904. Here again the
last column proves the relation of accidents to the ebb and flow of
traffic.
FREIGHT TRAFFIC AND ACCIDENTS.
The preponderating part played by the immense freight traffic of
American railways as a cause of accidents is shown in the following
analysis of the sixty "prominent collisions" described in the
Commission's quarterly Accident Bulletins for the year 1909:
=================================+============+========+========
Kind of Train in Accident | Number of | Killed | Injured
| Collisions | |
---------------------------------+------------+--------+--------
Passenger and passenger | 8 | 30 | 225
Freight and passenger | 18 | 68 | 374
Freight and freight | 34 | 47 | 91
+------------+--------+--------
Total | 60 | 145 | 690
---------------------------------+------------+--------+--------
Here it will be observed freight trains were involved in 86.6% of the
prominent collisions of the year and shared in responsibility for
79.3% of the fatalities. The proportion of injured in accidents to
freight trains is not so great for the obvious reason that the number
of persons exposed in collisions involving only freight trains is
generally limited to train crews.
CAUSES OF TRAIN ACCIDENTS.
An examination of the causes given for the prominent collisions and
derailments in the Accident Bulletins of the Commission since the
passage of the Act of March 3, 1901, requiring the railway companies
to make full monthly reports of all accidents affords the following
general statement:
=========================================================+==========
Cause | Number of
| Accidents
---------------------------------------------------------+----------
Negligence, error or forgetfulness of some member of | 241
train crew |
Recklessness, carelessness, overlooking or disregarding | 233
orders or taking chances |
Disobedience | 53
Incompetence or inexperience | 20
Defect of equipment, tires, wheels, etc. | 64
Defect of roadway | 24
Malicious acts | 27
Misadventure, washouts, landslides, cyclones, etc. | 91
Undiscovered | 41
+----------
Total | 794
---------------------------------------------------------+----------
Among the prominent derailments charged against the railways in the
Bulletin for April, May and June, 1909, is the following, resulting
in one killed and three injured.
"Automobile running on track, derailed by running over a dog,
one guest killed."
Through the inclusion in these Bulletins of accidents on trolley
lines, their value as records of railway accidents is being greatly
impaired. Without any information as to the number of passengers
carried by the electric cars it is impossible to arrive at an
accurate idea of the relation of accidents to traffic, and without
this the mere record of accidents has little information value.
ACCIDENTS ON BRITISH RAILWAYS.
For a second time in their history, in the year ending December 31,
1908, British railways went through a twelvemonth without killing a
single passenger in a train accident, thus paralleling their record
of 1901 in this respect. In the matter of passengers injured, the
year 1908 showed a remarkable improvement, not only over 1901 but
over any other year in the history of British railways. When it comes
to the totals of casualties, however, 1908 shows little variation
from the average record.
The following table shows the total number of persons killed and
injured in the working of British railways, as reported to the Board
of Trade for the calendar year 1908 as compared with 1901:
======================================+================+===============
| 1908 | 1901
Class +-------+--------+-------+-------
|Killed |Injured |Killed |Injured
--------------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+-------
Passengers: | | | |
In accidents to trains | -- | 283 | -- | 476
By accidents from other causes | 107 | 3,105 | 135 | 2,269
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total passengers | 107 | 3,388 | 135 | 2,745
| | | |
Employes: | | | |
In accidents to trains | 6 | 164 | 8 | 156
By accidents from other causes | 426 | 24,017 | 568 | 14,522
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total employes | 432 | 24,181 | 576 | 14,678
| | | |
Other persons: | | | |
Accidents to trains | -- | 7 | 3 | 5
While passing over railways at | | | |
level crossings | 51 | 44 | 55 | 26
While trespassing on line | | | |
(including suicides) | 479 | 118 | 426 | 171
Not coming under above | | | |
classification | 59 | 747 | 82 | 750
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total other persons | 589 | 916 | 566 | 952
| | | |
Grand total all classes, 1908 | 1,128 | 28,485 | 1,277 | 18,375
" " " " 1907 | 1,211 | 25,975 | |
" " " " 1906 | 1,252 | 20,444 | |
" " " " 1905 | 1,180 | 18,236 | |
" " " " 1904 | 1,158 | 18,802 | |
" " " " 1903 | 1,262 | 18,557 | |
" " " " 1902 | 1,171 | 17,814 | |
" " " " 1901 | 1,277 | 18,375 | |
" " " " 1900 | 1,325 | 19,572 | |
" " " " 1899 | 1,340 | 19,155 | |
+-------+--------+-------+--------
Total, ten years |12,294 |205,415 | |
--------------------------------------+-------+--------+-------+--------
As one year of traffic on American railways approximates ten years on
British railways, the above totals for ten years on the latter may be
compared with 8769 killed and 73,052 injured on the former last year,
or with 11,839 killed and 111,016 injured in 1907, the darkest year
in the annals of American railway accidents.
Attention is asked to the apparently startling increase in injuries
on British railways since 1905. The increase is absolutely
fictitious, having resulted from "a change in the definition of a
reportable accident," and not from any greater hazard in the working
of British roads. This confirms the objection, expressed in the
report of the British Board of Trade in 1903, to any changes in the
form of tables extending over a long series of years that "admit
of comparisons, which any change of form would invalidate if not
destroy."
It will be perceived that the mere change in the definition of what
constitutes a reportable accident increased the number of injuries
reported against British railways fully 50%. This justifies the
writer's view that comparisons of injuries in railway accidents are
of little value. Even the same injury does not affect two persons in
the same degree. One "hollers" and cries for a doctor where the other
whistles and goes on with his work.
The inquiries of the Board of Trade into the causes of British
railway accidents in 1908 confirm former findings that, exclusive of
train accidents, in the case of passengers "they mostly arise from
carelessness of the passengers themselves," and the same is true of
the vast majority of accidents to employes.
OVERWORK AND RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.
At last the statistics of the British Board of Trade furnish what
well nigh amounts to demonstration that long hours play very little
part as an actual cause of railway accidents. Under the statute the
Board requires reports of all instances of periods of duty in excess
of twelve hours worked on British railways. For the month of October,
1908, the returns show 31,052 excess hours worked out of 2,773,891;
and for October, 1909, 24,486 out of 2,695,036, or an excess of 1.12%
in 1908 and .92%, in 1909.
Now, out of 861 accidents investigated in 1908, only 16, or 1.85%,
occurred to men working in excess of 12 hours; and out of 804
investigated in 1909 only 9, or 1.12%. This bears out the opinion of
a high English official, that experience "does not show any close
connection between long hours and accidents."
The following statement shows the relation of accidents to the hours
the persons involved have been on duty on British railways for a
period of five years:
HOURS WHEN BRITISH ACCIDENTS OCCUR.