Railroad Accidents, Their Cause and Prevention — John Shaqi
Railroad Accidents, Their Cause and PreventionRichards, R. C. (Ralph Coffin)
History
Railroad Accidents, Their Cause and Prevention
Richards, R. C. (Ralph Coffin)
Railroad accidents
Ludwig Hoffmeister, injured at Montmorency, July 12; some cars
were switched down against the car from which he was unloading
apples, without notice to him, and he was thrown down and injured.
H. Schurmann, laborer, injured April 2 at Hennessy. He was in car
piling tile when the car was struck by a car of coal dropped in on
that track, knocking the tile down on Schurmann.
Foster & Roberts Co., for value of building at Lewiston, May 3.
Engineman and fireman left engine and went into factory to get a
drink; the engine with car ran away and knocked building down.
Car loaded with salt; was being kicked down main line at Hawkins,
October 12, brakes broke, car ran in on side track and struck
another car, knocking it against side of building belonging to
Blumenthal & Co., breaking in the walls and damaging machinery.
June 8, switching crew at Kempshall backed a box car against the
ammonia pipe which carries ammonia from the brewery to the
bottling works of the Kempshall Brewing Company, knocking down the
pipe, which was only twelve feet high, allowing the ammonia to
escape.
No one will pretend that these accidents and consequent injuries and
losses could not have been avoided by the exercise of a little
forethought and care. Why not do it and stop them in the future, avoid
the injuries and save the money they cost?
ACCIDENTS TO TRAVELERS ON THE HIGHWAY
The increasing frequency of accidents to travelers crossing the tracks
at highways, one-third of which the country over are fatal, are caused
by the increased number and speed of trains, increase in the
population of the territory through which the roads run, by the
failure to always give the required signal of the approach of the
train, frequently by freight trains passing through stations at a
speed prohibited by Rule 6, by failure to have gates or flagmen at
crossings where they are needed, by failure of gatemen and flagmen,
when provided, to properly perform their duties on account of
ignorance or carelessness, generally the former; but chiefly is the
increase caused by failure on the part of the persons crossing the
track to exercise any care whatever. Gates and flagmen are generally
disregarded by adults and, as a natural consequence, by children, and
the result is death and injury. I think that as a matter of dollars
and cents it would be profitable to the companies to increase the
number and quality of flagmen and have greater supervision given to
this class of the service, as it seems to me a self-evident
proposition that the lower the grade of labor the more supervision
there is needed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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