I shall next call your attention to accidents caused by defects in the
equipment, especially in that of freight cars and engines. They are of
such frequent occurrence as to no longer attract attention, but when
the time comes _that the man who inspects reports not to the foreman,
whose duty it is to keep the equipment in repair, but to a superior,
whose duty it is to find defects_, there will be a material reduction
in such cases. Train and enginemen should report defects discovered by
them on Form 995 and attach card to truss rod of car or locomotive
tank. And first we will take up those caused by defective cars:
J. I. Smindorf, brakeman, killed at Snook's Junction, by falling
from car, September 8, at 7:40 p.m. The running board was rotten
and full of holes; the brake at the north end of the car would not
hold on account of having a loose ratchet wheel.
P. L. Merritt, conductor, injured at Pencost, November 12, was
climbing down side of car; screw pulled out of top handhold,
allowing Merritt to fall to the ground, striking on a rail.
Randolph Smuck, brakeman, injured at Parrott, April 3, was going
down side car; stirrup was gone and he fell to the ground.
Matthew Brummage, switchman, injured January 4, at Keewahtah, was
riding on car which was being switched; he tightened the brake,
but the dog was in bad order and he had to hold brake with his
hand. There was two inches of slack on the bottom brake rod, the
chain slipped, and he was thrown from the car and his left foot
run over.
How many of the accidents caused by defective running boards,
handholds, ladders and brakes would have been avoided had Rules 25,
26, and 28, requiring trainmen to examine cars, brakes, and ladders
and to set out bad order cars been complied with, I leave you to
guess. And why when such defects are discovered by train and yard men
they do not report them to the next crew taking the car, so as to
prevent any of the latter being injured, I never could understand.
One cause of the great increase in accidents by trains breaking in two
and by defective couplers is probably on account of the fact that many
of the automatic couplers are commencing to wear out and are not
repaired or renewed promptly enough, and, also, because the levers and
chains of the coupling apparatus do not receive sufficient attention.
Another reason is because of the unnecessarily hard usage given the
couplers, especially in the yards where trains are made up. Just why
an appliance to save life and limb should be abused by the employees,
for whose benefit it was put on the cars and engines, is one of the
things which it would take a mind-reader to answer. But the truth of
the matter is, as every experienced adjuster knows, that the automatic
coupler has cost the railroads for equipment and freight damaged many
times over what it cost them to settle claims for personal injuries
caused by the old link and pin coupler; and when the brotherhoods take
up such matters as this and try to remedy them, they will not have so
many crippled members drawing insurance for permanent disabilities,
which would have been avoided by the proper handling of cars.
Another class of injuries which has come with the safety appliance is
that caused by the bursting of air hose, and it is surprising how many
of them there are.
Some day a man will get up a hose which won't burst, or which will
give notice of its intention so to do, and we will all rise up and
bless him. The following are samples taken from a job lot of such
cases:
G. A. Graham, conductor, injured June 4, three-quarters of a mile
north of Bogle; caused by air hose on car bursting, causing Graham
to fall against stove in way-car.
K. L. Grobbet, brakeman, injured one mile north of Brandon; caused
by the air hose bursting, throwing on emergency brakes. This man,
who was in front end of way-car, was thrown to the ground.
Now let us see the result to persons by reason of improper loading of
cars:
R. Puddles, switchman, injured at Grammaton, March 4, was hanging
on side of car loaded with lumber, engineman shut off suddenly,
and when car stopped the lumber slid and caught his hand between
lumber and stake on car. Lumber was loaded in two piles 16 ft.
lengths, leaving a space of about six or eight inches between the
piles.
George Brownell, brakeman, injured July 17, one and one-half miles
south of Cranton. At Cranton train extra, picked up a car loaded
with logs; two stake pockets broke; logs fell under way-car, which
tipped over.
And it is just as important to properly unload packages of newspapers
and mail from moving trains, and to exercise a little care in throwing
coal from engines, as it is to see that freight is securely loaded.
The number of accidents caused in this way since the running of the
fast mail and newspaper trains commenced would fill a book and could
all have been avoided by the exercise of that care which employees or
postal clerks would have exercised if they, instead of the company,
had to foot the bills caused by their carelessness. To me, it seems
not a difficult or unreasonable precaution to look, before you throw
out a heavy bag of mail or half a dozen packages of newspapers, to see
that no one will be hit by them, and that they could and should be
dropped just beyond the far end of the station platform, but never in
a street or public highway; and don't throw your clinker bars or ash
bars off engines, or anything else for that matter, without looking to
see if anyone is passing and when through with them put them in a safe
place so they won't project and strike anyone on the next track or
fall off and injure someone. If this had been done cases like the
following would not have happened:
Henry Forbes, roadmaster, injured November 3, at Marionette, was
walking west on station platform, when mail sack was thrown from
train struck him on the legs and knocked him down.
Paul Rhelips, injured at Dragitt, May 15, at 5:30 p.m.; caused by
his being struck with a block of hard wood which was tied to a
letter thrown from train by the baggageman, while passing through
the station at 45 miles per hour.