The following table shows the total number of persons killed and injured in the working of British railways, as reported to the Board of Trade for the calendar year 1908 as compared with 1901:
| Class | 1908 | 1901 | ||
| Killed | Injured | Killed | Injured | |
| Passengers: | ||||
| In accidents to trains | — | 283 | — | 476 |
| By accidents from other causes | 107 | 3,105 | 135 | 2,269 |
| Total passengers | 107 | 3,388 | 135 | 2,745 |
| Employes: | ||||
| In accidents to trains | 6 | 164 | 8 | 156 |
| By accidents from other causes | 426 | 24,017 | 568 | 14,522 |
| Total employes | 432 | 24,181 | 576 | 14,678 |
| Other persons: | ||||
| Accidents to trains | — | 7 | 3 | 5 |
| While passing over railways at level crossings | 51 | 44 | 55 | 26 |
| While trespassing on line (including suicides) | 479 | 118 | 426 | 171 |
| Not coming under above classification | 59 | 747 | 82 | 750 |
| Total other persons | 589 | 916 | 566 | 952 |
| Grand total all classes, 1908 | 1,128 | 28,485 | 1,277 | 18,375 |
| " " " " 1907 | 1,211 | 25,975 | — | — |
| " " " " 1906 | 1,252 | 20,444 | — | — |
| " " " " 1905 | 1,180 | 18,236 | — | — |
| " " " " 1904 | 1,158 | 18,802 | — | — |
| " " " " 1903 | 1,262 | 18,557 | — | — |
| " " " " 1902 | 1,171 | 17,814 | — | — |
| " " " " 1901 | 1,277 | 18,375 | — | — |
| " " " " 1900 | 1,325 | 19,572 | — | — |
| " " " " 1899 | 1,340 | 19,155 | — | — |
| Total, ten years | 12,294 | 205,415 | — | — |
As one year of traffic on American railways approximates ten years on British railways, the above totals for ten years on the latter may be compared with 8769 killed and 73,052 injured on the former last year, or with 11,839 killed and 111,016 injured in 1907, the darkest year in the annals of American railway accidents.
Attention is asked to the apparently startling increase in injuries on British railways since 1905. The increase is absolutely fictitious, having resulted from "a change in the definition of a reportable accident," and not from any greater hazard in the working of British roads. This confirms the objection, expressed in the report of the British Board of Trade in 1903, to any changes in the form of tables extending over a long series of years that "admit of comparisons, which any change of form would invalidate if not destroy."
It will be perceived that the mere change in the definition of what constitutes a reportable accident increased the number of injuries reported against British railways fully 50%. This justifies the writer's view that comparisons of injuries in railway accidents are of little value. Even the same injury does not affect two persons in the same degree. One "hollers" and cries for a doctor where the other whistles and goes on with his work.
The inquiries of the Board of Trade into the causes of British railway accidents in 1908 confirm former findings that, exclusive of train accidents, in the case of passengers "they mostly arise from carelessness of the passengers themselves," and the same is true of the vast majority of accidents to employes.
Overwork and Railway Accidents.
At last the statistics of the British Board of Trade furnish what well nigh amounts to demonstration that long hours play very little part as an actual cause of railway accidents. Under the statute the Board requires reports of all instances of periods of duty in excess of twelve hours worked on British railways. For the month of October, 1908, the returns show 31,052 excess hours worked out of 2,773,891; and for October, 1909, 24,486 out of 2,695,036, or an excess of 1.12% in 1908 and .92%, in 1909.
Now, out of 861 accidents investigated in 1908, only 16, or 1.85%, occurred to men working in excess of 12 hours; and out of 804 investigated in 1909 only 9, or 1.12%. This bears out the opinion of a high English official, that experience "does not show any close connection between long hours and accidents."