Occasionally we have an accident in which trespassers are killed or
injured while walking or playing on the tracks, which might be avoided
by greater care and watchfulness to discover their danger, by warning
them of the approaching train, either by continuous sounding of the
whistle, by slowing up, or by stopping when you have reason to think
they do not know a train is coming, especially on the double track
when trains are moving on both tracks. The most heartrending of them
all are injuries to children, and, sometimes, to women.
Let me cite you several of such cases:
Albert Jennings, ten years old, was sitting on the tracks north of
Lampton, July 9, at 10:45 a.m., where he was struck by a work
train of twenty-two empty flats backing north and both legs
crushed. Air not coupled in as required by Rule 44; no hand brakes
on the cars. Conductor was on the front car; claims he was keeping
a lookout, and although he had a clear view for over a quarter of
a mile says he did not see the boy until he was within three or
four car lengths of him.
Charles West, aged eighteen months, struck and killed 1,000 feet
south of Savannah Station, June 16, by train. Child came on track
through a break in the right of way fence.
Margaret Kennedy, struck and killed on June 13, at 6:10 p.m.,
while walking on the tracks inside the city limits of Utopia, by
engine running about twenty-five miles an hour; although the
engineman saw her in time to have stopped, he did not realize that
she did not see or hear the train coming, and failed to do so.
Mrs. Helen Boston, eighty-four years old, struck and killed on a
bridge near Lenox, September 1, at 4:35 p.m., by engine. Track is
straight for about two miles and a half east of place of accident,
and the woman wore a bright pink dress skirt. No one on the engine
knew the accident had happened.
December 21, engine ran over G. P. Krauss, at 5:40 p.m., a quarter
of a mile south of Slazenger. Engineman says he saw something
lying on the track and thought it was a bough of evergreen. He did
not know until he reached the station that anybody had been struck.
As the traffic and population increase, cases of this kind grow in
number, and, for some unknown reason, the public think that, while
they must keep off the property of private individuals, where there is
no danger, they are privileged to go onto a railroad track where
everyone knows there is great danger, and after doing so a few times,
the courts say they have a license to do so, and that we must look out
for them and see that they don't get hurt. On the same theory I
suppose the courts would say after a man burglarizes your house six or
seven times that he has a license to try it again, and if he gets hurt
because too much force was used in throwing him out, that you must
respond in damages. So when you discover that people, old or young,
are making a custom of walking through the yards or on the track,
report it to your superintendent before, not after, someone is killed
or injured, and he will try to stop it. And if you find a child or a
drunken man on the track, drive him off, because if you don't they are
likely to get killed; and your company will not only back you up but
thank you for your thoughtfulness.