Show DEATH ON THE RAIL accident B bulletin no 28 of tho the interstate ter state commerce commission says tho the chronicle brings bring s down the record of casualties on american railroads t to 0 the close of the last fiscal year bear 1 1 it shows a great decrease in the number of killed and injured but nothing in the report indicates that any anny permanent gala gain has been made ir in I 1 hp he safety of operating railroad trains during the year ending june last the number wiled killea in the united states by moving cars was and of injured this was a great reduction from tho the casualties of the previous year when were killen killed and injured but it indicates little it if any improvement in conditions for owing to tile the much lighter traffic fewer men have been employed and the smaller number of trains run reduced the risk of the killed during the last year but were passengers pape Pap engers including those stealing rides and of these the majority were killed in passing to and from the cars or similar cause not classified as ag train accidents the record of in round numbers persons per lay day killed or wounded by the operation of moving cars Is appalling and yet when the causes of injury are analyzed it seems difficult to see where there is much hope for improvement because tile great ma of casualties resulted from tiie imperfections of human nature and more often irl in the person injured than in any ono one else in spite of tile the kerei oral al use 1190 of automatic couplers thero there were fourteen men killed and lu it ared in coupling cars luring during the quarter ending last june the casualties from that cause howe however v or havo been greatly reduced and there is no occasion for many injuries in couo ling lin it if trainmen and yardmen yardman would i refuse to take risks cbeth 1 er ejr trains were made up and handled Kia artly or not but it Is a trait 1 l I 1 I 1 human humai nature that constant tion lion with danger makes men indifferent to it and andelt it Is also true that somo casualties to men between cars result from causes over which tho the injured have no control cars move when they are arc not expected to move in tho yards many are injured by being struck by cars or engines which come apon them unnoticed as the result of at carelessness of themselves or others A great majority of tho the casualties in connection with tho the operation of trains or engines are due to causes which cannot be prevented by any action of 0 the companies unless it be the enforcement of a R stricter discipline in each quarterly accident bulle bulletin tn the interstate commerce commission gives the essential details including the causes of the twenty most serious train accidents of the twenty given in the ho last bulletin ten were collisions and ten derailments ailments der of the collisions collision a eight duo due to disregard presumably from forgetful forgetfulness nes a of plain or ners aers by engine men or conductors or loth both and two to errors of telegraph operators one ot of the operators was serving his first night at that kind of work all the others were experienced rien ced none of the men involved Is reported as having been on duty for unreasonable hours of the ten derailments ailments der of which particulars are given one was due to the burning on out of the filament of an electric lamp should have given warning one to malicious obstruction one to laborers injuring the air brakes in climbing on the train one to a broken wheel iange one to an imperfection in an interlocking switch one to a burned bridge and the rest to injury of the ro roadway by water of these one was appalon apparently aly owing to the switch tender 1 leaving the electric lamp too long without changing and one embankment afi ae at had been undermined by seepage which proper inspection by th section men should have discovered excluding the case of deliberato deliberate train wrecking out ot of the nineteen most serious accidents during the quarter thirteen were due to errors of employed emp loyes who presumably did not mean to err in the case se of the irim icim perfect switch it might have been due to wearing which should have been noticed the other five appear to have been what must be classed AS unavoidable accidental that Is accidents against which human foresight could not have hav c provided it Is or of course possible to make all railroad bridges of steel esteel or masonry and to make the foundations such that no cloudbursts caff undermine them but in the development of anew a new cou country it is not possible to get the money to build with the most thorough construction |