Address, “The Prevention of Railrod Accidents”

Mr. Johnson—In approaching this subject it will be well to get our viewpoint adjusted to a true perspective and just proportion. Accidents on railways which result in death or injury to persons, are all reported to State and National officials, and when the statistics for the year are compiled and published the total figures are startling, and suggest that the transportation business of the country is conducted at a fearful sacrifice of life and limb. It should be remembered, however, that in no other line of the Nation’s activities are similar complete statistics available.

The only data at hand to show the relation between the numbers killed and injured on railways, and those occurring in other lines of action, are found in a pamphlet issued by the city of Chicago, entitled “Report of the General Superintendent of Police,” from which the following table is taken:

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Accidents Reported by the Police Department, Year 1911.

Fatal.Non-fatal.Total.
Steam Railway Accidents187554741
Street and Elevated Railway Accidents1063,6463,752
Accidents Caused by Teams and Vehicles1352,8122,947
Accidents Caused by Falling from Windows, Scaffolds, Porches, etc.1492,6802,829
Bitten by Dogs41,2811,285
Injuries by Personal Violence1772,7292,906
Overcome by Gas, Smoke or Heat189653842
Scalded or Burned81216297
Various Other Causes1931,9452,138
—————————
Total1,22116,51617,737

From this it will be noted that of 1,221 fatal accidents in 1911, only 187 occurred on steam railways, and of 16,516 nonfatal, only 554 are charged against them. Comparing the total accidents, it will be seen that five times as many persons were killed and injured on street railways as on steam railways, four times as many by teams and vehicles, four times as many by falls from windows, scaffolds, etc., and again four times as many by personal violence. Even the dogs come in for having done 73 per cent. more damage than the steam railways. Taking the last two items together, it appears that Chicago’s vicious dogs and more vicious men are nearly six times as destructive of life and limb as are the railways.

While the foregoing figures are for the city of Chicago only, they are indicative of the fact that throughout the country the number of accidents on railways is a mere fraction of those occurring elsewhere, and this fact has been recognized by the accident insurance companies when they issue policies calling for double compensation if the accident occurs while traveling in steam or trolley cars.

If the grand total of accidents on railways appears so startling when presented in concrete figures, what would it be if equally complete figures could be had for the other types of accidents classified in the Chicago report?

And now having cleared the atmosphere in that respect, we will proceed to consider the railway accidents on their own merits.

The Interstate Commerce Commission issues a series of quarterly bulletins of railway accidents. They also issue an annual report of general railway statistics, in which a summary of statistics of railway accidents was included prior to 1910, but which has since been admitted as an unnecessary duplication. The statistics of the annual report have been compiled on a somewhat different basis from those of the bulletins, and the two sets of figures cannot always be reconciled. In compiling the following tables the annual reports prior to 1910 have been followed as being the final word of the Commission.

It should be noted that the statistics of railway accidents are divided into two general classes:

First. Accidents due to the movement of trains, engines or cars, which may properly be called “transportation accidents.”

Second. Accidents not connected with train or car movements, such as happen to shopmen, warehousemen, trackmen handling material, etc., such as are equally occurring in other industries, and which are more properly classed as “industrial accidents.”

This discussion will be chiefly devoted to the first class, as being distinctively “railway accidents.”

PROGRESS IN THE PAST.

The loss of life from railway accidents began with the day of the opening of the first railway in England, in September, 1830, on which occasion a prominent citizen, a member of Parliament, was knocked down and fatally injured, sending a thrill of horror not only through the great throng of spectators, but also throughout the civilized world. That unfortunate accident was not due to any defect in track or equipment, nor to any fault in the operation of the train. It was due to the victim’s failure to appreciate the danger attending the then new and novel mode of transportation, and inadvertently putting himself in a position of danger. It was the forerunner and prototype of many thousands of others which have since occurred through carelessness and sheer recklessness of the victims, and which the railway companies are powerless to prevent.

But as railways multiplied other accidents occurred, which were due to defects of one kind or another in track and equipment, or to inadequate rules governing train movements, and the duties of the several employes. Each accident has been carefully studied as to its cause, and, so far as possible, remedies have been applied. Thus the immense system of transportation as it exists today has been a gradual development from crude beginnings. The light iron rails inadequately secured at the joints have been replaced with heavy steel rails with effective joint fastenings. Train movements have been safeguarded by a well-digested system of rules, uniform on all railroads; by standard forms of train orders with all ambiguities of language eliminated, and by block signals, interlocking and automatic couplers, air brakes and other safety devices. Stoves and oil lamps, with their menace of fire, have given way to steam heating and electric lighting. The inflammable wooden cars are being replaced with steel equipment. In fact, there has been a steady progress from the beginning in the effort to reduce the danger to life and limb.

But accidents continue to happen, partly because the rapid growth of traffic and the demand for greater speed are creating new conditions, partly because materials have hidden defects and the human machine is not infallible, and partly because discipline has been largely subverted through the attitude of the brotherhoods of employes.

In order to show in a general way what has been accomplished, the average figures for the five-year period from 1889 to 1893, inclusive, have been compared with the corresponding figures for the years 1907 to 1911, inclusive, with the following results:

Ratio of passengers carried to one killed has increased 35.5 per cent.

Ratio of employes to one killed has increased 54.7 per cent.

This shows a very decided gain in the twenty-two years covered by the record.

The number injured cannot be compared in the same way, for the reason that in the later years the reports include large numbers of minor injuries of a more or less trivial nature, which were not included in the earlier reports, but which the Interstate Commerce Commission now requires to be reported, thus swelling the number injured out of all proportion to the earlier reports. Under the present rules, if a passenger lets a window sash bruise his finger, and it is brought to the attention of any of the train crew, it must be reported, and enters into the final statistics with as much weight as the loss of an arm or a leg.

CAUSE AND PREVENTION.

In the Accident Bulletin for June, 1910, pages 10 and 11, there are given detailed statistics of twenty-six “prominent train accidents” with the causes of each. They embrace thirteen collisions and thirteen derailments, resulting in sixty-two killed, 306 injured, and a property loss of $261,584. The causes assigned may be grouped under fifteen heads, as follows:

Excessive speed, 5; ran by meeting point, 2; failed to flag, 5; disobeying orders, 1; misunderstanding orders, 1; failure to receive orders, 1; conflicting orders, 1; signal light out and engineman failed to stop, 1; broken rail, 2; explosion of boiler, 1; spreading of rails, 1; washout, 1; trestle failed, 1; insufficient ballast, 1; defective temporary junction of new and old rails, 1. Total, 26.

These fifteen assigned causes may be summarized thus:

Failure of persons, 18; failure of boiler, 1; failure of track and structures, 7. Total, 26.

Of the seven failures of track and structures, the two cases of “broken rails” and one “washout” may be considered unavoidable. The remaining four cases in that group, viz., “spreading of rails,” “trestle failed,” “insufficient ballast” and “defective temporary junction of old and new rails” were preventable, and could have occurred only from neglect of those charged with their care and maintenance.

The one case of “explosion of boiler” may have been due to defective material, or to negligence of the engineman.

We find, therefore, that in this group of accidents, twenty-two were preventable, three unavoidable and one doubtful.

Of the unavoidable, the “washout” may be dismissed as being beyond the control of human agencies, but the “broken rail” calls for further consideration.

Rail failures are generally due to chemical or physical defects, not entirely under control of the manufacturer, and not discoverable by inspection of the finished rails. Under the present practice the manufacture of rails is watched at the mill by the railway company’s inspectors. Specimens from each heat or melt are tested under a weight of 2,000 pounds falling fifteen feet to twenty feet. If the test piece breaks the steel is regarded as too brittle, and the rails from that heat are rejected. If it does not break, but the deflection exceeds the prescribed limit, the steel is too soft, and those rails are accepted as seconds, to be used only in yards and side tracks. All test pieces which do not break under the foregoing drop test are then broken and examined for internal defects. If defects are found, further tests are made, and the heat rejected in whole or in part, on the extent of unsoundness disclosed.

But herein lies a difficulty. Internal defects can only be found by breaking the rail. A rail broken is past usefulness. Hence that form of inspection cannot be applied to every rail; and as we can only test a limited portion of each heat, some defective rails must inevitably be passed and get into track. Complete statistics of all rail failures on a large proportion of the railways of the United States have been collected by the American Railway Engineering Association for several years past. These reports have been collected and classified as to the several causes, the results being printed in the publications of the Association. They show that the rails which fail annually are less than one eighth of one per cent. of the rails laid. This indicates fairly successful inspection, and would be quite satisfactory were it not that a single failure may result in such horrible consequences.

Five years ago (1907) as the result of several conferences between a committee of the American Railway Association and the rail manufacturers, a systematic study of the subject was undertaken, with a view to ascertaining the cause, and if possible, the prevention of rail failures. This research work was placed in charge of the Rail Committee of the American Railway Engineering Association, who engaged the services of a competent expert, who devotes his whole time to the work, furnishing freely of their materials and facilities at the mills. The line of investigation includes studies of the effects of variations in composition; in time in the bath; in time in the ladle; in manner and rate of pouring; in size of ingot; in rate of reduction at each pass; in temperature of the metal when rolled; in the effect of different alloys, etc. The field of investigation is broad and complicated. Much progress has been made, but much remains to be done. It is hoped, however, that success will ultimately be reached, and the rail failures in service be reduced to the lowest possible minimum. Certainly the railway engineers and the manufacturers are making every effort to accomplish that result.

Of late the adoption of some form of automatic stop has been suggested, and more or less urgently advocated. But let us consider: Referring again to the list of causes of the twenty-six accidents, such a device would have been called into play only in one case, that of running by a signal when the light was out. It could have had no influence on any one of the other twenty-five cases. Furthermore, it has been the experience the world over that emergency devices, resting in “innocuous desuetude” for long intervals of time, usually fail to work when the emergency arises. It may be said that it should be some one’s duty to see that the apparatus is kept in working order. Very true. But therein is a reversion to ultimate dependence on the human factor with its attendant weakness and frailties.

The foregoing list of accidents embrace only a few of the more prominent “collisions” and “derailments.” But there are other forms of accident, as shown in the following statistical tables copied from the Interstate Commerce Commission Annual Report for 1909:

ACCIDENTS RESULTING FROM THE MOVEMENT OF TRAINS, LOCOMOTIVES, OR CARS.

Interstate Commerce Commission Annual Report, 1909.

Employes.
Switch Tenders,
KIND OF ACCIDENT.Trainmen.Crossing TendersStation Men.Shopmen.
and Watchmen.
Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.
Coupling or uncoupling1372,27143522117
Collision2051,9731101123
Derailments1841,18610216
Parting of trains723321
Locomotives or cars breaking down915926
Falling from trains, locomotives, or cars2954,43315630265
Jumping on or off trains, locomotives or cars844,13566424459
Struck by trains, locomotives or cars243577727921254189
Overhead obstructions4777564
Other causes13313,3769243212114465
Total1,34429,118935072520664734
Employes (Continued).
KIND OF ACCIDENT.Trackmen.TelegraphOtherTotal.
Employes.
Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.
Coupling or uncoupling711501552,382
Collisions181327271632522,309
Derailments1364101172081,385
Parting of trains121129250
Locomotives or cars breaking down2101112178
Falling from trains, locomotives, or cars131597362343474,983
Jumping on or off trains, locomotives or cars1613013222611324,686
Struck by trains, locomotives or cars3534128121873459251,539
Overhead obstructions452052809
Other causes2588234831,34026616,461
Total4411,8028733832,5422,35834,982
Other Persons.
KIND OF ACCIDENT.Passengers.Trespassing.Not Trespassing.Total.
Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.Killed.Injured.
Collisions692,37913492544738496
Derailments172,4263269628738356
Parting of trains473313316
Locomotives or cars breaking down211415
Falling from trains, locomotives or cars374254137321372426804
Jumping on or off trains locomotives or cars811,5034451,688111204561,808
Struck by trains, locomotives or cars;
At highway crossings231122116211,6197331,830
At stations306736533466183431517
At other points along track1123,3712,037791433,4502,180
Other causes122,715190635471,0302371,665
Total2499,5794,9445,7598693,9185,8139,677

Referring to the column of totals under the head of “Employes” you will note the large number of killed and injured in coupling or uncoupling cars; this in spite of the fact that all the equipment is fitted with automatic couplers, intended to prevent just those accidents.

The next two items, “Collisions” and “Derailments,” are also large, both as to employes, passengers and others, and we have already seen that in the former list eighteen out of twenty-six were due to “failure of persons.” Referring again to that list it will be further seen that sixteen of the eighteen were due to failure of the persons in charge of the trains, which justifies us in assuming that a similarly large proportion of these totals are due to like causes.

Please note also the large numbers, running through all these classes of persons, opposite the items “Falling from trains, locomotives or cars” and “Jumping on or off trains, locomotives or cars.” These may all be charged to the carelessness of the victims.

So, also, those “Struck by trains, locomotives or cars” nearly all of these are chargeable to the fault of the parties themselves.

“Other causes” are also prolific in casualties, but the data at hand does not disclose the extent to which they are chargeable to carelessness of victims or others, to preventable or to unavoidable causes.

Your attention is also directed to the very large numbers of killed and injured while “trespassing” on the railway property. Some of these belong to the great army of tramps infesting the country, but the largest part are people of the communities along the lines, who persist in using the tracks as a public thoroughfare. In most of the States there are laws on the statute books which are adequate to prevent this if duly enforced, but it seems impossible to get such enforcement. On the lines with which the writer is connected, efforts have been made in the past to break up this practice, but without success. Parties arrested by the railway company’s police and taken before the local magistrate have been released without punishment or only assessed a nominal sum to secure to the magistrate his fees. A rigid enforcement of these laws, and similar action as to jumping on or off locomotives and cars in motion (as is done in Europe) would eliminate approximately one-half the total killed and one-fourth the injured.

Here is a field in which the railways alone are helpless, but where much can be accomplished by legal enforcement, supported by strong popular approval. Without the latter, little aid can be expected from the average country justice or city magistrate.

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS.

The first man to publicly call attention to the need of organized effort in this direction was Mr. R. C. Richards of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, in his booklet “Railway Accidents, Their Cause and Prevention,” published in 1906. The seed thus sown has taken deep root, for at the present time nearly every leading railway in the country has an organized safety committee, whose duty it is to make regular periodic inspections to see that work places and tools are in safe condition; that yards, tracks, stations, buildings and grounds are clean and properly lighted; that shop machinery is protected by safeguards over gearing and other exposed moving parts, and that men are taking proper precautions for the protection of themselves and others. They report upon conditions which they feel can be improved, investigate accidents with a view to preventing repetition, and recommend improved methods of work to reduce risk of accident.

The Northwestern, after the first sixteen months, showed a decrease of 23.7 per cent. in deaths, and 29.8 per cent. in injuries, compared with the previous period of the same length. On the Pennsylvania Railroad the result of the first eleven months was a decrease of 63 per cent. in the combined number of deaths and serious injuries. These results are most gratifying, and demonstrate the usefulness of such close inspection and watchfulness.

IN CONCLUSION.

Accidents due to washouts, and to hidden defects in material are in the main unavoidable, though the former may sometimes be avoided by increased care and watchfulness during and after storms, and it is hoped that the latter may be materially reduced through the investigations now in progress in steel making.

Accidents due to imperfectly maintained track can be avoided by better maintenance, or by reducing speed to correspond to the conditions of the track. Speed and track conditions are inter-dependent factors.

Accidents due to jumping on or off trains in motion, and to trespassing, can be and should be eliminated by a rigid enforcement of existing laws, or the passage of new ones, if those on the statute books are found to be inadequate. As already stated, this would save one-half the annual deaths and a large proportion of the injured.

Substantially all of the casualties in coupling and uncoupling cars are due to carelessness of the men themselves, and the same may be said of most of those due to falling from or being struck by trains, locomotives or cars. It is difficult to suggest a remedy for this, or to formulate a course of procedure to reform the men in this respect. Recent and prospective legislation affecting the employers’ liability will not be conducive to increased carefulness, but will rather tend to foster carelessness.

Train accidents due to error, negligence or incompetence should be corrected by proper discipline. But the administration of discipline is restrained and obstructed by the brotherhoods, whose officers claim the right to be present at all investigations, and the discipline ordered must meet their approval. They contest suspension and dismissals by appeals to higher officers who have no personal knowledge of the men, and use every means at their command, even to threatening a strike, to prevent the order from being carried out, often with success, all of which is subversive of discipline.

It is not a comforting thought that, when you, here assembled, disperse to your homes, some of you may place your lives in the hands of a man who is retained in the service through intimidation, rather than fitness and merit.

There can be no remedy for this while unprincipled demagogues and politicians, catering for votes, continue to appeal to class prejudice, and while the sympathies of the people, public officials and arbitrators seem to be arrayed against the railways.

President White—We have now something else very interesting, and the next speaker will only keep you fifteen minutes. I now take pleasure in introducing Mr. A. B. Farquhar, of York, Pa., who will speak on “Vital Statistics and the Conservation of Human Life a National Concern.” He knows his subject; he knows it by experience; he has been through it; and he has met the classes, met the conditions he speaks of. He has a message to give you that is well worth hearing.