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Show If Noah Had Ridden the Railroads Last year the American railroads established the best safety record ever made by any form of transportation. There was but one passenger fatality for each 2,400,000,-000 2,400,000,-000 miles traveled. No passenger fatality resulted from a train accident. The few that occurred were the result of other causes, such as boarding and alighting from moving trains. A little fanciful story illustrates just how amazingly safe the railroads have become. Suppose trains had existed exist-ed in Noah's day, 4,000 years ago. Suppose Noah had boarded a train at the end of the great flood and had continued con-tinued to ride at the rate of 60 miles an hour ever since 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Noah still wouldn't have to worry about accidents, even after 40 centuries of unbroken, un-broken, high-speed railroad travel. For, on the basis of last year's record, he'd still have several hundred more years of railroad riding ahead of him before, according to the law of averages, he will meet with a fatal accident. The railroads have come about as close to the ideal of 100 per cent safety as anyone can conceive of. And they have done it at a time when the volume of traffic has been increasing when more trains, faster trains, and bigger trains have been crossing and criss-crossing the nation. This was possible because every railroad worker is con-1 stantly schooled in safe procedures and every piece of railroad equipment is constantly evaluated by safety experts. ex-perts. The figures show what that policy has done for the traveler's welfare. |