Much has been said and written during recent years about the
increasing number of railroad accidents in this country--their cause
and what action should be taken by the government, the railroads and
the employees to reduce them and the consequent loss of life and limb
resulting therefrom. Believing that if the cause of our many accidents
were properly understood more care would be taken by the corporations,
employees and persons at fault to reduce the number, I shall try to
point out in the following pages what investigation has shown me to be
the 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 highest
duty is to the passengers, to carry them safely and speedily; next, to
take care of the property entrusted to it for transportation, and for
which it is practically an insurer against everything but the act of
God or the public enemy, and deliver it with reasonable dispatch to
the consignee in practically the same condition as that in which it is
received.
It is a self-evident proposition that the nearer the railroads come to
performing this duty, the fewer losses and claims for damages they
will have to pay, and, as a matter of course, the more money there
will be left with which to pay wages, interest, dividends, and make
improvements. So it behooves all, who are working for those wages, to
do everything they can to help carry on the business properly and
correctly in order that the interest of the companies hiring them, as
well as their individual interest, will be subserved, and for the more
important reason of causing as little suffering, pain, and sorrow to
those who by accident may be maimed or killed, which always brings
trouble and sorrow to the victim as well as to his family, and
frequently results in untold suffering and privation to the widows and
children.
The report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that for the
year ending June 30, 1904, there were
441 passengers killed.
3,632 employees killed.
839 not trespassers killed.
5,105 trespassers killed.
9,111 passengers injured.
67,067 employees injured.
2,499 not trespassers injured.
5,194 trespassers injured.
Making 10,017 killed and 83,871 injured, or a total of killed and
injured of 93,888, many times over the casualties of our last war, and
all the roads seem to have done their share of this havoc.
We should strive to see if in the coming year we cannot reduce the
number, so that the casualties reported, and consequent loss to the
companies, will be reduced, considering the number of employees,
mileage, earnings, number of trains run, persons and property
transported, and the territory traversed, and for the purpose of
bringing this matter before you in a proper light I will call
attention to a few of the many accidents which have recently occurred,
which, with proper care and the use of good judgment, would have been
avoided and fewer persons left to go through life crippled, fewer
homes made desolate and fatherless, and sometimes motherless, and at
the same time the money which has been necessarily paid out to settle
the claims saved to the companies, and, consequently, just so much
more money left in the treasury to pay for wages, interest, dividends,
and betterments.
Taking into consideration the safety appliances installed by the
railroads since 1898, the improvement in track and equipment, and the
increase in wages paid, with even the same degree of care on the part
of employees, the number of accidents should have decreased, but on
the contrary they show an actual percentage of increase higher than
that of earnings, and if the employees are onto their jobs they ought
to and must find a way to reduce the number of such cases and
consequent expense to the companies.
For the purpose of showing that the employees are the persons most
vitally interested in this matter, as upon them falls the major part
of the fatalities and injuries resulting from such accidents and upon
themselves and families the suffering and pain which always comes
after them, while upon the companies falls the immense and increasing
financial drain, following their wakes, as well as loss of prestige
and public criticism which necessarily follow, and which is increasing
every day, I have prepared the following statement.
1. The percentage of employees to the number of passengers transported
during the year ending June 30, 1904, was one for each 552.
2. The percentage of passengers killed (441) to the whole number of
persons reported killed in all classes (10,017) was 4 per cent.
3. The percentage of passengers injured (9,111) to the whole number of
persons reported injured in all classes (83,871) was 11 per cent.
4. The percentage of passengers injured (9,111) to the number
transported (715,419,682) was about one in each 80,000.
5. The percentage of passengers killed (441) to the number transported
was about one in every 1,600,000.
6. The percentage of employees injured (67,067) to the whole number of
employees (1,296,121) was about one in every 19.
7. The percentage of employees killed (3,632) to the whole number
employed (1,296,121) was about one in 360.
8. The percentage of employees killed (3,632) to the whole number
reported killed in all classes (10,017) was about 36 per cent.
9. The percentage of employees injured (67,067) to the whole number
reported injured in all classes (83,871) was 80 per cent.
10. The percentage of employees (300,000) engaged in the hazardous
part of the business such as train, engine and yardmen to the whole
number employed (1,296,121) was 25 per cent.
11. Percentage of those engaged in the hazardous part of the work, who
were killed (2,343), to the whole number of employees reported killed
(3,632), was 64 per cent.
12. The percentage of those engaged in the hazardous part of the work
who were injured (32,345) to the whole number of employees injured
(67,067) was 48 per cent.
An examination of the statistics published by the Commission also
shows that the number of accidents depends not so much on the actual
length of track of a railroad in miles, but upon the density of its
traffic and of the population of the territory through which it runs,
for illustration take one division on a system that runs through a
thickly settled country, that has five per cent of the actual mileage
of the system and fifteen per cent of the train mileage, and another
division in the same system that runs through a sparsely settled
country, that has ten per cent of the actual mileage of the system and
five per cent of the train mileage, and it is a well-known fact that
the percentage of accidents on the former will be many times that on
the latter;
That the heavier the traffic the greater need there is of more care
being taken in employing and educating the right kind of men to
operate the trains; and
That with denser traffic there should come more and better supervision
to insure observance of the rules adopted for the safe operation of
trains and that the increase in quantity and quality of that
supervision should at least equal in ratio the increase in traffic.
Indeed, I believe that when this is done many of the troubles and
difficulties the railroads now labor under will pass away, and that
the additional expense caused by such increase will be saved many
times over by a general reduction in operating expenses, especially in
waste and damage.
Accidents should be divided into four classes:
_First._ Unavoidable accidents, or those caused by the act of God, the
public enemy, or by some miscreant who takes up a rail, misplaces a
switch, or puts an obstruction on the track.
_Second._ Accidents to passengers, outsiders trespassing or not
trespassing, caused by the carelessness or wantonness of the injured
or some other person for whose act the railroad is not liable, or by
the failure on the part of the State or municipality to make and
enforce proper laws and ordinances to prevent stoning trains and
trespassing on the premises and cars of the companies.
_Third._ Those caused by the want of care, foresight, or supervision
on the part of the management of the company.
_Fourth._ Those caused by the carelessness, thoughtlessness, or
neglect of employees.
Neither employees nor company can be held to blame or can prevent
accidents resulting from the first and second causes, and fortunately
for the reputation as well as the treasury of the companies over
one-half of all the fatalities and a large proportion of the seriously
injured come under the second class, and until the life and limb of a
trespasser (10 per cent or 1,000 of the 10,000 killed and injured on
the railroads of this country every year being children under fourteen
years of age) are considered to be of some value to their families and
to the State, they will not only continue to occur, but will increase
each year as our population and traffic grow.
Accidents caused by carelessness, thoughtlessness, or neglect of
employees are the large majority of all that happen, and if we could
eliminate them, or one-half of them, there would be little cause for
complaint on the part of the management of the companies, or criticism
on the part of the public, and the claim agent would have a bed of
roses instead of the busiest and hardest worked office on the road,
and I believe that when the employees really understand the matter
many of them will be eliminated.
We should bear in mind that it is not the great train accidents that
make the large majority of the total deaths and injuries on the
railroads of this country, about which so much is said in the public
press, but it is the little cases that are unheralded in the press, or
in the courts, that make the totals so large; the little things that
are happening every day, on every railroad in the country, which go on
happening every year in the same old way, and they are the cases which
could and should be avoided by the exercise of greater care and
thoughtfulness--more of them come from thoughtlessness than any other
cause. My experience leads me irresistibly to the conclusion that
after all it is the _man_, not the safety appliance, that we must
depend on to prevent accidents, as has been demonstrated by any number
of cases that have occurred at points where the track has been lined
with safety appliances.