Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1916 — SAFETY IN TRAVEL [ARTICLE]

SAFETY IN TRAVEL

REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD OPERATION. Few Casualty In 1915 Constitute a Wonderful Record—Number of Accidents Are Showing a Constantly Increasing Reduction. The annual bulletin concerning railway accidents hns been issued by the interstate commerce commission; and the great decrease in fatalities and accidents noted has Inspired much comment in engineering circles. It marks, says Ihe Railway Age Gazette, the greatest improvement in safety of railroad operation ever recorded in a single year.” Traffic was exceptionally light in 1915; hut the Gazette does not overlook the fact that the number of accidents is always roughly proportionate to the volume of business. The decrease is much greater than could be accounted for by the eurly industrial depression. *As the statisticians have put it: “The total number of passengers killed in 1915, 222, out of approximately a billion carried, was less than for any other year since 1898, when only 798,000,000 were carried; and the number injured was less than any other year since 1906. The total number of employees killed was less than for any other year since 1898, when there were only about one-half as many employees as in 1915, and the number injured was less than for any other year since 1911.” Moreover, during the last few months of 1915 there was a heavy increase in busines on all railroads, especially east of the Mississippi; yet there seems to have been only a slightly longer roster 'of accidents than usual in November and December. And government figures leave no doubt that the ratio of accidents to volume ( of business has been steadily reduced in the last decade. The form of transportation accident In which the railway Is essentially to blame Is the train accident. Crossing accidents and the killing of trespassers are seldom chargeable to the operating department of the railroad. And the lists of fatalities in train accidents, from the years 1910 to 1915, inclusive, show ft steady and most hopeful improvement. In 1910, 932 were killed; in 1911, 867; in 1912, 859; in 1913, 849; in 1914, 626; and in 1915, 410. Taking passengers alone, the reduction exhibits about the same steadiness, there being only one marked fluctuation upwards. In 1910, 421 were killed; in 1911, 356; in 1912, 318; in 1913, 403; in 1914, 265; and in 1915, 222. The total number of fatalities among employees shows also a fairly steady decrease, with a remarkable drop in the last two years. In 1910, 3,383 were killed; in 1911, 3,163; in 1912, 3,235; in 1913, 3,301; in 1914, 2,850; and in 1915, 1,809. These lists do not include those who came by their deaths in what are termed “industrial accidents.” There are recorded also parallel reductions in the number of injured among both passengers and employees, the total for 1915 having been less than 160,000. And it is well known that in the last few years the seriousness of the injuries to passengers, at least, has lessened. The crushing, the maiming, the burning that were almost commonplace in the days of wooden cars have given way, as the claims departments of the railways testify, to bruises, fractured bones, and nervous shock. All the factors that have operated to reduce the number of deaths have operated to reduce also the gravity of Injuries. A few of the larger eastern railways have been eminently successful in showing that, so far as passengers are concerned, safety- in railway management can be made almost an exact science.