What immunity to fatalities to passengers over such a vast mileage means may be partly realized from the fact that only twice in half a century has it occurred on the 23,000 miles of British railways, and never, to the writer's knowledge, so far as statistics reveal, on the railways of any of the great divisions of Europe. Certainly it has never occurred on the aggregate railways of Europe.
It would take seven consecutive years of immunity from fatalities to passengers in train accidents on British railways to equal this phenomenal record of American roads.
In presenting similar returns for 1908, it was said that "considering the myriad units of risk involved, the record for immunity from fatal accidents to passengers is without parallel in the history of railway operation." How that record has been not only equalled but surpassed is shown in the following statement for the last two years:
| Summary of Mileage and Traffic of Roads on which NO Passenger was Killed in a TRAIN ACCIDENT During the Years 1908 and 1909. | ||
| 1909 | 1908 | |
| Number of operating companies | 347 | 316 |
| Mileage of these companies | 159,657 | 124,050 |
| Passengers carried | 570,617,563 | 455,365,447 |
| Passengers carried 1 mile | 18,953,025,000 | 14,776,368,000 |
| Tons of freight carried | 1,116,877,052 | 916,123,410 |
| Tons of freight carried 1 mile | 151,974,495,000 | 121,589,399,000 |
| Passengers killed in train accidents | None | None |
| Passengers injured in train accidents | 2,585 | 2,695 |
This table proves that the area of perfect safety, so to speak, was extended over from 22% to 26% more units of risk in 1909 than in 1908, which already held the palm for immunity in train accident fatalities to passengers.
The figures given above as to passengers injured in train accidents are equally illuminating as to the safety of American railways, for they demonstrate that with the multiplication of risks in 1909 the number of injured was less by 4%. The fact that no passenger is killed in train accidents is more or less adventitious, but a reduction in the number injured testifies to a reduction in the opportunities for fatalities.
During the past ten years the average of passengers injured in train accidents on British railroads has been 580, which, considering the difference in the units of risk, is 100% higher than the above record for 159,657 miles of American railway in 1909.
The following table, which includes no less than six great systems of over 2,000 miles each, presents similar data in respect to the ten roads whose record for safety to passengers in train accidents is marred by a single fatality: