The Railway Library, 1909 / A Collection of Noteworthy Chapters, Addresses, and Papers Relating to Railways, Mostly Published During the Year - Unknown

The following statement shows the relation of accidents to the hours the persons involved have been on duty on British railways for a period of five years:

Hours When British Accidents Occur.




Three months to	Off duty	Hours on Duty when Accidents Occurred
Three months to	Off duty	1st	2d	3d	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th

Sept. 30, 1908	1	20	18	19	17	15	23	19	11	11	17	14	17	3	0	0	1	0
Dec. 31, 1908	5	12	22	34	14	23	23	16	14	19	13	11	8	5	0	0	0	0
March 31, 1909	4	14	16	29	28	16	17	18	19	11	12	15	7	0	0	0	0	0
June 30, 1909	1	15	16	10	19	15	14	15	16	24	12	11	5	0	0	0	0	0

Year 1909	11	61	72	92	78	69	77	68	60	65	54	51	37	8	0	0	1	0
Year 1908	6	60	103	83	85	77	81	72	70	63	57	53	35	8	8	0	0	0
Year 1907	1	70	86	78	78	71	64	59	48	68	62	43	35	14	12	5	3	1
Year 1906	6	52	64	70	86	63	81	68	70	71	61	42	39	7	4	3	0	2
Year 1905	3	52	74	65	54	71	66	59	48	53	56	41	37	7	3	3	0	1

Five years	27	295	399	388	381	351	369	326	296	320	290	230	183	44	7	11	4	4

It will be observed that out of these 3,945 accidents investigated and reported on by British inspectors during the years 1905 to 1909, inclusive, a majority happened during the first half of the twelve hours for which the men were booked and 2.28% when they were working overtime. In no instance was the accident attributed to long hours.

Railway Accidents in Europe.

Excluding the returns of injured, for the reason that no two countries have a common definition of a reportable injury, the accidents on European railways, according to the latest reports, resulted in the following fatalities:

Killed in European Railway Accidents.
(Total mileage represented 182,459.)




Country	Year	Passengers	Employes	Other Persons	Total	Preceding Year



United Kingdom	1908	107	432	587	1,128	1,211
Germany	1908	105	604	644	1,353	1,558
Russia in Europe	1905	231	478	1,149	1,858	1,632
France	1907	(a)36	322	(b)301	659	627
Austria	1907	11	147	145	303	213
Hungary	1907	32	138	172	343	319
Italy	1907-8	(c)42	105	115	262	277
Spain	1907	25	64	213	302	219
Portugal	1904	—	—	—	55	—
Sweden	1906	10	45	57	112	105
Norway	1908	1	4	6	11	9
Denmark	1907-8	(c)1	20	9	30	22
Belgium	1907	4	72	70	146	125
Holland	1907	3	18	25	46	60
Switzerland	1907	14	45	36	95	78
Roumania	1907-8	8	42	50	100	103



Totals	—	630	2,536	3,580	6,803	6,595


(a) Train accidents only; other accidents to passengers included under "Other Persons."
(b) Excluding suicides.
(c) Statistics cover State railways only.

These figures, representing a European mileage of 182,459, may be compared with those of the United States in 1897 when it had 183,284 miles of line and an accident record of 222 fatalities to passengers, 1,693 to employes and 4,522 to other persons; or even with the American record for 1909, when with a mileage 27% greater the record stood 335 fatalities to passengers, 2,456 to employes and 5,978 to other persons. The excess of fatalities to other persons in this country is due to the notorious indifference to danger and law of all classes of citizens in using railway right of way as a common thoroughfare for adults and playground for children. Despite the elevation of the tracks in Chicago, the writer has seen scores of youngsters scarcely able to walk playing on those raised tracks and laughing at the locomotives as they went shrieking by.

In all comparisons of accidents on American railways with those on foreign roads, it should be remembered that our excess of mileage and freight traffic more than balance their density of passenger traffic and that nowhere else on earth is railway right of way common to foolhardy pedestrians and creeping children.