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Railroad Disasters

Railroad Disasters image
Parent Issue
Day
9
Month
February
Year
1877
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Railroad Gazette has compiled and published records of railway accidenta for four complete calendar years. The number of accidente and of persons killed and injured in them for each of these yeard have been : Í873. 1574. 1$7S. 1376. Accidenta 1.283 880 1,201 942 Killed 276 204 234 328 Injured 1,172 778 1,107 1,097 The number of accidenta thus appears to have been nearly the same last year as in 1874, but fatal injuries were more than ior any prêceding year reported. This is due largely to the catastrophe at Ashtafiulaj h$ whieb eigh,ty persons lost their lives - nearly one-fourth Of the victims of all the train accidenta Jf the entire year. Without this, hOw6ver, the accidenta were more than usually fatal, one of the causes of which, doubtless, is the unusual amount of passenger trafile last fall, there having been more accidenté to passenger tráins. than usual. The average ntimber of killed aÜd injured per accident for the four years has boen : 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. Killed 0.215 0.209 0.195 0.334 lnjured 0.914 0.800 0.923 1.117 Killed and injured.. 1.129 1.009 1.118 1.4S1 Thus 1876 enjoys the distinction of having had the deadliest accidents. If we were to omit the Ashtabula dispater, there would still be 0.253 killed and ÍJ2H injured per accident; so that this disaster was not needed o gire it this distiaction. The accidents for a series of years compare in number as follows : 1876. 1875. 1874. 1873. Collisions 279 278 260 392 Derailments 655 840 654 815 Otuer accidenta 48 83 66 76 Totale 982 1.201 980 1,283 Average number per day. 2.69 3.29 2.68 3.51 The record of 1876 is more like that of . 1874 than any other. Both years had a mild winter, and the accidenta re&ulting froitt briken raijte were comparatively few. The very largo number of accidents f rom misplaced switches this year is noticeable,and suggests that raüroads may have been employing too cheap labor. The number of accidents for which no causes are assigned is smaller thaa heretofore. Of the deraüments for which causes are assigned, ihe percentage due to each of the chief causes was as follows in the severa! years : 1876. 1875. 1874. 1873. Broken rail 10.6 17.3 9.9 22.2 Mieplaced switch 18.9 13.1 15.4 14.4 Cattle on track 9.7 8.2 10.3 10.8 Wash-out 8.5 7.1 2.3 6.0 Loose or Bpread rails .... 9.2 6.5 97' 2.6 Brokenaxle 8.1 6.8 4.6 4.2 Accidental obstruction... 7.7 6.0 11.7 8.8 Broken wheel 4.7 6.3 4.6 5.2 A indicating the effect of severe weather on track (not necessarily on iron, howeTer), we gire below the break - ages of rails repörted for ths firBt and the four years : 187Í 1874. 18TS. 187S 'total: First qustrteh... 05 0 90 88 i) Third quartísr 6 5 3 5 18 This indicates that there were eleven times as many accidents by broken rails in the cold as in the hot quarters of the year, and the effect of the severe weather is further shown by a compari9on of the breakages in the cold winters of 1873 and 1875 with those in the milder winters of 1874 and Í879. A more general classification of the sauses of derailments gives the followLnff ■ 6 1873. 1874. 1876. 1876. Detecta or f ail urea in permanent way 200 146 261 165 Defects or f allures in rolling stock 73 63 101 76 Negligence, carelessneaa orinalice 90 107 114 119 Unforeseen obsirnctions net niallciolis ....:;;.:. Hl 109 142 107 The great calamity at Ashtabula wül doubtless cause renewed attention tü one class of accidents, at least. We have chronicled during the past four years ninety-eight cases of the failure of a bridge or trestle, nearly every one under a train. None of them had results anything like as serious; but that most of them were comparatively harmless was much more " accidental " than the failure of the otruotures themselves. The one lesson of the accident record of 1876 likely to be loügest remembered is, how terrible may be the reSults of an error in the eonstruetion of a bridge, or of negligence in its inspectiom

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus