Railway Crossing Accidents.
—The great number of fatalities at railway crossings has for years been a theme for much talk, and many suggestions for the elimination of grade crossings have been made. The public seems to think that the railways are the ones that oppose the elimination. As a matter of fact they would welcome elimination if it could be done at reasonable cost. In 1919 there were eliminated 399 crossings “but there are still 251,939 crossings on Class 1 Railroads (revenue of over $1,000,000 annually) alone and the conservatively estimated sum which would be required to eliminate all remaining crossings in the entire United States is placed as high as $12,500,000,000, which cannot be immediately available.”[205] It is estimated that more than 2000 persons are killed annually in the United States at these crossings. The Pennsylvania R.R. Bulletin, February, 1914, states that 430 crossings were eliminated on that road from 1904 to 1913 at a total cost of $27,742,433—an average of $64,518 per crossing. In Illinois the average cost of eliminating ten crossings was $58,000. In California the average cost is estimated at $30,000; in Colorado, $40,000; in New York, $48,000; and in Wisconsin, $25,000, according to the bulletin mentioned. Even at pre-war prices the average cost for the whole United States was put at $40,000. Since there are in the whole country something over 300,000 crossings that will account for the $12,000,000,000 necessary.
The public must remember that the elimination of crossings even if the railways could finance such a vast operation would eventually be charged up to and paid for by the public. While the railroads have a direct interest in checking crossing accidents, yet in the first and last analysis the public itself suffers the pain, the mutilation, and the passing to the Great Beyond, in addition to bearing the financial burden.[206]
F. T. Darrow, Asst. Chief. Engr., C. B. & Q. R.R., makes this calculation[207] for the State of Nebraska.
| Population | 1,350,000 |
| Miles of railway track | 6,516 |
| Number of grade crossings | 11,300 |
| Cost of entire removal | $452,000,000 |
| Cost per mile of track | 70,000 |
| Cost per person | 330 |
Nearly doubling the cost value of the railroads, at a price 11 times as much as railroad service now costs per annum per person.
But suppose the cost were put upon the public at the beginning, the state would have to finance the $452,000,000, and if it were placed as a charge against the 80,000 miles of rural highway and the 45,000 miles of city and village streets, it would amount to $3600 per mile. Similar calculations could be made for each of the States.
From the above it does not appear probable that either the railroads or the state or both together, can afford to pay for the elimination of all grade crossings right away. It is probable that they will be gradually done away with, although Mr. Darrow states that at present two or three crossings are added to the list for each one subtracted. The railroads realize that it is incumbent on them to make the crossings as safe as possible but that they must look to the education of the public as a means of immediately reducing fatalities. Hence the “Cross Crossings Cautiously” campaign in 1922. The bulletin states that the “Safety First” organized effort had reduced the number of deaths among railway employees from 4354 in 1907 to 2578 in 1920. A thing well worth while and a similar campaign against carelessly crossing crossings may change, at least, the rate of acceleration of crossing accidents, which have increased in the past thirty years 345 per cent in fatal and 652 per cent in injury cases, while the country’s population has increased in the same time only 68 per cent.