RAILWAY COLLISIONS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1922, 3 December 1913, Page 10

RAILWAY COLLISIONS.

■» - CAUSES AND REMEDIES. MACHINES BETTER THAN MEN An American expert once laid it down ?S V"*m m , (Mys tho L " mlou "horning lost ) that there is no'such thin" as an unimportant railway accident, be™ cause the factors that in one instanco do not lead to personal injury or loss oi lite may have the most disastrous results on another occasion. For C \- ample, the derailment of an express tram in a tunnel has in at least one case been unaccompanied bv anv casualties, although the- results'cf such an occurrence would in tho majority of instances bo appalling. Again, when tho moving train concerned' in a collision has only been travelling at a low eprnl at- ino time of impact, tho outcome has at times been very serious and at others the. reverse. This maxim regarding the miportanco of aJ! railway accidents brings in its train tho conclusion that it is uoeessarv to investigate tho causes of all mishaps, a doctrine- observed in practieo by tho Board ol trade.

"While English railways are on tho whole the safest in tho world, having regard to the number of passengers carried and tho density of traffic, it is impossible (says tho "Post") to shut one's eyes to the fact that there has lately been a somewhat abnormal increase in tlio number of passengers killed A curious fact is to ho noted in connection with recent accidents. From tho beginning of 190,-, to the end of 1910 there were seven accidents in Great Britain, in each of which eight or more tho IS victims of the Salisbury five out of these seven wire derail! ments, and tho more serious of the two eolisions that.at Elliot Junction," on tho Aorth British and Caledonian Ilailndv/.,r' aS ilt .i° ast P a !'. tin,! y due to tho aclUTie weather conditions which prra.led at the tune. This cycle of V lailinonts has been succeeded bv a PVclo ot collisions, of which we hove had three very bad instances within the past iew months. Kow, while a derailment mnv be due iLncTi" 0 <° rer ,vh - ich jt is piactiVallv h<? « 51° lo f csc , rase col "i-oi such as ennt ~1 en fl r, cturc ,? f a ciank .ixlo or the malicious placing of an obstacle on the track, tho over™«i? Ul ? n,a ''° nt - r if cal!iai <»>s arc the lostut ot prevontablo causes. Or to Pit., jt morn correctly, there is hardly a eolliMon which should not be impossible rill leT' /^« ndc "t™l this fact it will bo useful to enumerato tlio chief causes of collisions. Pirst, thero is the failure of the brakes to act, or to act rt'^ T r%' S,lOton| y ara '«o^oe ' but 1S " S ", all - T u « «sult ot iicgligenco; as was shown in igr/J vie., a co ,5,0« took place at Eatil." through iailnro to examine the bra lei heloro starting. The other pn. «pal causes arc tho failure of tho driver to notice- a signal, misreading o dfslogardmg a signal, error bv a sfcnaL man, and failure of the siguallin- mechanism to work properly H ith tho exception of tho last-named al these causes are duo to tho human element. Mechanical appliances can to a certain extent, remedy human shortcomings, but the extent varies according .to circumstances. For instance, ro device can compel a driver to notice ?ny particular signal, „,- to obey ™ indications, but mechanical appliances can prevent accidents arisino- as the result of such disregard, 'whether it ho ■duo to negligence, momentary' aberration, or nonest. mistake. Jt is unnecessary hero .to refer'to" such devices-au-tomatic signalling, wireless.'traiit-.con-, tiol and tho likc-smco'they : ]i!ivc i;o----cently lire,, described at some length iu tne ".Morning Post"; the point to bear m mind is that they ensure the external application of tho brakes when a tram passes a danger signal, and thus act as a corrective to the human element; on the locomotive footplate Mechanical devices can also prevent a largo proportion of signalling errors. So far as concorns the last cause of collisions to bo discussed, the failur" of tno signalling system to work properly, no machine is, of course, abso-lutely-infallible, although -modern machinery approaches far more closely to infallibility .than the human beings'who control it. Moreover, the tendency of contemporary signal engineering is to design a plant which in case of breakdown will only give a "danger" indication, thus erring on the sido of safety. Tho conclusions to bo drawn from the aboyo brief survey are that railway collisions are very largely preventable, but that the installation of safety devices is naturally costly. However, the public may bo reassured to loam 'that tho British railway companies are now keenly alive to recent advances in "safe railroading," and thero is not a single automatic signalling or automatic control devico of anproved value that is not being examined bv those responsible for. tho safety of the travelling public.