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Show TO STOP TRAIN ACCIDKNT8. - ! ' t i Railroad Workmen of Experience Talk 1 It Over. In tho switchmen's shnnty In tho railroad ynrds the other night they wero talking or rnlircnd nccldents nnd what caused them; says the Kansas Kan-sas City Stnr. "I' saw In the paper tho other day that the railroads 'wore blaming tlio accidents, upon Incompetent employes," em-ployes," Bald an old switchman who hnd worked, In his tlmo. at nil kinds of railroad work. "Lot ind tclP'you the reason of 89 many accidents. The law used to require tho railroads to havo bIx men to take caro of every six miles of track. Now three section men cpro for nlnu miles. That gives tho men too much to do nnd tjioy can't keep the 'road In repnlr nnd -1. It na they ought to. Tho law t to fprcu. oveiy- railroad to. hnvo a watchman jn every bridge, nlgl)t nnd' day, nnd when It wa rnlny and bad tho section men ought lo go over the track threo tlmea 11 dny," "That's all right," said tho loromnn of tho creAV. "It's h good thing and would prevent most of tho accidents, because the great majority, of thorn come froin n defect In the track or In K bridge. But I would mako tho'rnll-roads.iln tho'rnll-roads.iln addition to that, have n track walker, who would, go ovpr the bad places In tho track after a train passed. Many nccldents nro 'caused by a train loosening n bolt or crack-jng crack-jng a rnll or weakening the trnpk Botiio way", and tiio next train that comes nlong goes In tho ditch," "Boys, lot mo tell you," said tho engineer, en-gineer, who wns sitting upon a bench filling his pipe. "The rnllrbad companies com-panies can, never' prevent accidents until they glvo their employes tlmo to sleep and rest, Ytiu'vo all Been an engineer who's beep on his engine from 21 to 48 hours bo sent out on a run ngaln with only four or flvo hours' sleep. A man In thnt condition enn't keep awake. Then, ngaln, an englno ought always to bo Inspected after' It comes In pft a run. Yet It Isn't dono. And they make one car Inspector do four men's work. Lots of cars aro on tho road that ought to bo in tho Bhops." A switchman, who' wub formorly a conductor of a freight train, said: "To savu money the roads scud out CO to 70 loaded cars with n big mogul engine Instead of 10' cars. The conso-quenco conso-quenco is tho track spreads nnd tho noxt, train weakens it n Httlo moro' and tho third goes Into tho ditch." |