| Passengers Carried One Mile to One Killed. | |||
| Year | Passengers Killed in Train Accidents | Passengers Carried One Mile | Passengers Carried One Mile to One Killed |
| 1909 | 131(a) | 29,452,000,000 | 288,745,100 |
| 1908 | 165(b) | 29,082,836,944 | 196,505,648 |
| 1907 | 410 | 27,718,554,030 | 72,802,600 |
| 1906 | 182 | 25,167,240,831 | 183,702,488 |
| 1905 | 350 | 23,800,149,436 | 68,000,427 |
| 1904 | 270 | 21,923,213,536 | 81,197,087 |
| 1903 | 164 | 20,915,763,881 | 127,535,745 |
| 1902 | 170 | 19,689,937,620 | 115,823,162 |
| 1901 | 110 | 17,353,588,444 | 157,759,894 |
| 1900 | 93 | 16,038,076,200 | 172,463,183 |
| 1899 | 83 | 14,591,327,613 | 175,799,127 |
| 1898 | 74 | 13,379,930,004 | 180,809,864 |
| 1897 | 96 | 12,256,939,647 | 127,676,454 |
| 1896 | 41 | 13,049,007,233 | 318,268,469 |
| 1895 | 30 | 12,188,446,271 | 406,281,542 |
| 1894 | 162 | 14,289,445,893 | 88,206,456 |
| 1893 | 100 | 14,229,101,084 | 142,291,010 |
| 1892 | 195 | 13,362,898,299 | 68,522,555 |
| 1891 | 110 | 12,844,243,881 | 116,765,853 |
| 1890 | 113 | 11,847,785,617 | 104,847,660 |
| 1889 | 161 | 11,553,820,445 | 71,762,859 |
| (a) Of these only 102 were passengers in the ordinary sense of the term. | |||
| (b) Of these only 148 were passengers in the ordinary sense of the term. | |||
The student has to go back to the years of continued business paralysis, 1895 and 1896, to find any record of immunity to passengers from fatalities in train accidents at all comparable with the conditions that prevailed in 1909.
Decreased Hazard to Train Crews.
Never in the history of American railways has the occupation of the men directly engaged in the operation of trains been as free from fatalities as during the year 1909. This is proved by the following statement showing the number of trainmen killed in all descriptions of accidents since the figures have been compiled, with the ratio to the number employed:
| Summary Showing Number of Trainmen Killed in Railway Accidents 1889 to 1909, with Ratio to Number Employed. | |||||
| Trainmen | Trainmen in Yards | Yard Trainmen Switching Crews | All Trainmen | Number of Trainmen for One Killed | |
| 1889 | 1,179 | — | — | 1,179 | 117 |
| 1890 | 1,459 | — | — | 1,459 | 105 |
| 1891 | 1,533 | — | — | 1,533 | 104 |
| 1892 | 1,503 | — | — | 1,503 | 113 |
| 1893 | 1,567 | — | — | 1,567 | 115 |
| 1894 | 1,029 | — | — | 1,029 | 156 |
| 1895 | 1,017 | — | — | 1,017 | 155 |
| 1896 | 1,073 | — | — | 1,073 | 152 |
| 1897 | 976 | — | — | 976 | 165 |
| 1898 | 1,141 | — | — | 1,141 | 150 |
| 1899 | 1,155 | — | — | 1,155 | 155 |
| 1900 | 1,396 | — | — | 1,396 | 137 |
| 1901 | 1,537 | — | — | 1,537 | 136 |
| 1902 | 1,507 | — | — | 1,507 | 135 |
| 1903 | 2,021 | — | — | 2,021 | 123 |
| 1904 | 1,181 | 487 | 488 | 2,156 | 120 |
| 1905 | 1,155 | 386 | 493 | 2,034 | 133 |
| 1906 | 1,360 | 400 | 575 | 2,335 | 124 |
| 1907 | 1,507 | 459 | 630 | 2,596 | 125 |
| 1908 | 1,097 | 362 | 496 | 1,955 | 150 |
| 1909 | 789 | 270 | 313 | 1,372 | 202 |
The figures of the Interstate Commerce Commission have only made the division of trainmen shown above since 1904. Here again the last column proves the relation of accidents to the ebb and flow of traffic.
Freight Traffic and Accidents.
The preponderating part played by the immense freight traffic of American railways as a cause of accidents is shown in the following analysis of the sixty "prominent collisions" described in the Commission's quarterly Accident Bulletins for the year 1909:
| Kind of Train in Accident | Number of Collisions | Killed | Injured |
| Passenger and passenger | 8 | 30 | 225 |
| Freight and passenger | 18 | 68 | 374 |
| Freight and freight | 34 | 47 | 91 |
| Total | 60 | 145 | 690 |