Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1910 — TAKE UNDUE RISKS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TAKE UNDUE RISKS

CARELESSNESS OF TRESSPASSERS CAUSE MANY DEATHS. Chances Taken by Those Unlawfully Using Right of Way Result in Many Accidents. It is not generally understood how lar ge a proportion of the deaths and

injuries on the railroads of this country is due to the risks wilfully taken by trespassers who persist In using the right of way as a public thoroughfare, says the Scientific, Amen-

can. The annual reports of the Interstate Commerce commission for the last 11 years show that in this period 105,000 persons were killed or injured and that of this total about 50,000 were kiHed outright. The large ratio of fatalities to injuries, which is several times larger than the ratio that obtains in the case of accidents to passengers and employees/ suggests that practically all- these accidents were due to trespassers being struck by moving trains. The records Of the commission show that in 1898 4,063 trespassers lost their lives on American railroads; that five years later the number of killed was 5,000, and that in 1907 it rose to 5,612; that is to say, on every day of that year an average of over 15 people lost their lives enttirely through their own folly In trespassing on the right of way of the railroads Figures compiled by the Pennsylvania railroad alone show that 465 trespassers lost their lives on that system’s lines in 1899, and 781 were killed in 1904; while in 1907 the number reached 915, an average of about three for every business day of thfe year. In the last named year this , company Inaugurated a vigorous campaign against trespassers, and as a result the number of fatalities in 1908 was reduced to 757. There is no country tn the world where the loss of life due to trespassing on railroads approacnes these figures, not even if we take into consideration the smaller mileage of the railway systems in Europe and elsewhere. The difference is easily explained. It Is due to the stringent laws in Europe against trespassing, to the careful policing or the tracks, and especially to the fact that violations of the law are Invariably punished. Here In the United States conditions are exceedingly lax. Some of the railroads, and notably the one referred to above, endeavor to enforce the law against trespassing on railroad property. The Pennsylvania company exhibits thousands of warning signs along the right of way; but unfortunately the actual punishment of persons violating the laws against thus trespassing has been infrequent, the cost of imprisonment often deterring the local courts from holding those who have been arrested by the watchman. The fatalities and injuries are most frequent where the railroads pass through manufacturing districts in which the tracks are lined with factories. The railroad frequently offers the shortest cut between the factory and the home, and statistics show that men of the laboring class, artisans and their wives and children, are annually killed by the hundred. Evident-, ly the remedy for this shocking slaughter, which stands as distinct reproach against the civilization of America, is to be found in the thorough co-operation of city and country authorities with the railroads in the rigid enforcement of the law against trespass. So long as the public realizes that warning placards, railroad watchmen , and laws against trespass are subject .the caprice of local magistrates wfto look with a lenient eye upon offenders, trespassers will continue to walk on the track and this horrible annual roll of deaths and injury will continue to increase.