Railroad Accidents, Their Cause and PreventionRichards, R. C. (Ralph Coffin)
History
Railroad Accidents, Their Cause and Prevention
Richards, R. C. (Ralph Coffin)
Railroad accidents
Everyone knows that it is unsafe to handle a car containing passengers
without the engine being coupled to it and air-brake in use, and that
Rule 10[1] expressly prohibits such work, yet in this case it was done
by men long in the service, who probably had done the same thing
before without accident and without being caught, so they chanced it
once too often, and the cost in this case would pay many times over
for the time they had saved before. It is just as unsafe to switch
caboose cars in which train crews are resting or cars loaded with
horses and cattle or emigrant movables in that way, and it ought to be
stopped. If it was, there would not be the injuries to trainmen or
damages to live stock that we have now from that cause.
[1] Copies of all rules referred to will be found in the
Appendix.
We all have no end of trouble with circuses and theatrical troupes
traveling in their own cars, many of which ought to be in the scrap
heap. These cars should never be accepted, no matter who is in them or
what notice you may have received about the runs to be made with them,
unless the brakes, running gear, and everything connected with them
are in good repair, but when you do take them, handle them as
carefully as if they contained dynamite, and get them off the line
without accident. When you find such a car on a track which you are
obliged to use--it should when possible be set on a track not used for
switching--either to move it or some other car, handle it with the
greatest care; don't do as was done at Harrison just a short time ago
when
Laura Jameson, with a theatrical troupe, was in car "Pomfret,"
Nov. 9th, which was coupled onto by engine No. 402 with such force
that she was thrown from the chair in which she was sitting,
bruising and injuring her.
Neither would any of the following cases, caused by careless handling,
have happened:
Mrs. R. A. Storrs, passenger injured at Whiteford, Aug. 8th, at
7:20 a.m. Engine was pulling train back in the yard and ran in on
track that had some cars on it and collided with them, the switch
having been left open.
W. R. Thomas, injured at Winton, at 2:50 p.m., Dec. 10, by reason
of standing up near stove in way-car when two cars were coupled on
train, he was thrown against stove and onto floor.
John A. Klohs, stockman, was riding in the caboose of extra stock
train east, at Yale, June 4th; got up to take off his coat; the
train was coupled up with so much force that he was thrown over
the stove and his ankle injured.
Now we will take up cases caused by careless loading and unloading of
freight from mixed trains:
It would not seem necessary to have to tell anyone that timbers or
telegraph poles ought not to be unloaded from moving trains carrying
passengers, or from any moving train, and yet that is exactly what was
done, when
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