Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1915 — SAFETY FIRST. [ARTICLE]

SAFETY FIRST.

A Senseless Waste of Life That Can Easily Be Stopped. In the ten years from 1901 to 1910, inclusive, the number of deaths from trespassing on the railroads in the United States was 50,025, while in the United Kingdom ii was 4,434. The. disparity between the injured is still more remarkable. •On our roads the total injured was 53,427, while in the United Kingdom it was 1,313. Moreover, the traffic density is greater in the United Kingdom, with 191.3 miles oUrailroad in a thousand square miles, against 70.3 miles in the United States. And yet the United Kingdom had only s.s per cent of our total dead trespassers and 2.4 per Cent of yrfir. injured. This is not a cas«-where the simple expedient of blaming it on the railroads suffices. It has nothing to do with level crossings. The condition and ratio .would not be cluing ed by elevating or lowering the tracks. The accidents here are the result'of creating a pedestrian right

of way where none does or should exist. It is justly pointed out py , the Railway Business Association, in a pamphlet on "The Deadly Toll of Trespass on Railways,,’ that this frightful total is due to causes well known to us in other directionslack of laws or lack of enforcement. One instance quoted is sufficiently significant. The law against trespass in enforced in Canada. A SSO fine there, with a possibility of two months in prisoit, had the result in the case of the \Vabash of three! deaths and three injuries on the Canadian part of that system, as against '94 killed trespassers and 135 niainled on the American portion. As Edward B. Pryor, receiver of the road, says: ‘‘The law in Can ada is very strictly enforced. The result is that we are not burdened with the trespassing evil in Canada.” In all politicians’ efforts to se- ; cure the safety of the public, will it / be believed that 35 states have no law specifically prohibiting persons from walking on a railway right of ! way? The state of Missouri, as the , Railway Business Association points out, even recognizes “The inalienable right of the American citizen to get himself killed or mangled.” In other words, does not bar him from claiming damages. - - T --- All but six of these states, those

having no sessions in 1915, will have the opportunity to put a trespass law on thelV statute books. Is it hoping too much that the legislatures will co-operate with the railroads in the matter of ‘‘safety first?” —Wall Street Journal.

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