Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1913 — LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL [ARTICLE]

LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL

Railroads Declare That Many Employes Lose "Lives Through Carelessness of Others. It is the little things that are killing the men who run the engines and work in the yards and on the trains and in the shops; and this the railway companies are also telling their- men. Here are some examples furnished by the claims department of one of the great railways of the West.: At Cape Mo., the Frisco railway has a little turn-table installed in a round house. Someone about the roundhouse fixed a stick with a nail in the end of it, to be used in hoisting the night light over the track running out on the “table.” After the happy-go-lucky fashion that obtained there, the man who lit and hoisted the light always threw down the stick on the deck of the “turntable.” It so happened that a hostler jumped down from the running board of an engine one night, lit on the stick and rolled on over the deck into the pit beneath, breaking both wrists and otherwise damaging himself. This cost the railroad considerable money and? practically disabled the employe for life. But the cases are legion. At Garfield, Mo., an accident occurred a few months ago that resulted from “over-caution’,’ thoughtlessly applied. The night operator set his red light against an oncoming passenger train for which he had orders. To make doubly sure that the train stopped, he told his helper to step out and place a torpedo on the track. The young man did so. He placed it exactly in front of the station platform, Instead of walking a few yaras down the track. A curious youth lounging around on the platform when the train pulled in was struck by a piece of the torpedo when it exploded and seriously Injured. The Injured youhg man, of course, demanded damages.