OCR Text |
Show Deaths Reduced In Railroad Crossings Fatalities due to highway grade crossing accidents were the lowest in 1930 for any year since 1922, according accord-ing to complete reports for the year just filed by the railroads with the interstate in-terstate commerce commission and recently made public. Complete reports for 1930 show that 2,020 persons lost their lives in grade crossing accidents, which was a reduction of 465 or nearly 19 per cent compared with the number of fatalities in 1929. Persons injured in such accidents in 1930 totaled 5,517, a reduction of 1,287 compared with the receding year. In 1930 there were 4,853 accidents at highway grade crossings, compared with 5,975 ' in 1929. This reduction of nearly 19 per cent in the number of fatalities resulting from highway grade crossing accidents acci-dents in 1930 compared with 1929 took place in the face of an increase of approximately four per cent in all other fatal'ties on the highways of this country. The railroads, in cooperation with various safety organizations, have for vears waged a vigorous campaign in an effort to impress upon the public the necessity for exercising the maximum maxi-mum amount of caution in approach-'ng approach-'ng and passing over highway grade crossings and the marked reduction that has taken place in the number of accidents at such crossings is in part due to the increased cooperation of the public in this matter. Elimination of all highway grade crossings is imposs'ble, owing to phy-s'cal phy-s'cal reasons and prohibitive cost, but millions of dollars are being spent annually by the railroads for the removal re-moval of the most hazardous ones and for the purchase and installation of automatic warning devices, gates, signs and signals at other highway grade crossings in an effort to safeguard safe-guard human life to the greatest extent ex-tent possible at such points. Class 1 railroads in 1929 spent $28,-415. $28,-415. GS0 for additional protection to or elimination of highway grade crossings. cross-ings. Of that amount, the railroads alone spent $25,113,338 for separation separa-tion cf grades, while $589,941 were expended for abandonment or removal remov-al of highway grade crossings, and ! $2,742 101 wore expended for addi-t'onal addi-t'onal automatic warning devices, gates, signals and signs designed to protect human life at highway grade crossings. |