RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5209, 1 December 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

(From the Standard.) The general report presented to the Beard of Trade upon the accidents which have occurred on the railways of the United Kingdom daring the year 1876 has just been printed, and is, as in all former years, most instructive reading. It is satisfactory to see that accidents, on the whole, have been steadily declining during the last four years, there being 149 for last year, against 161 for 1875, 16S for 1874, and 241 for 1873. On the other hand, two classes of accidents show a considerable increase ; accidents arising from deficient break power and accidents arising from excessive speed The most formidable class of accidents—namely, those occurring within fixed signals at stations or sidings—usually come within this category, and ii. 1870 there were forty-nine investigated accidents of this das**, involving the death of twenty passengers and six servants, and injury to st»l passengers and forty-one servants. There were forty-one cases of negligence or mistake mi the part of officers nr servants, sixteen oases of defective system for securing intervals between trains, or want of block-telegraph working, seventeen cases of defective arrangements of signals or points, nr want of locking apparatus or safety points'; seven casts of insufficient or inadequately enforced regulations, sixteen cases of insufficient accommodation in lines or sidings, fifteen cases of inadequate break power, two cases of foggy we ther, and three cases of in-mfficient establishment, or too long hours of doty. Thus we see that in six out of seven of these fatal accidents some negligence or mistake on the part of the companies’ servants contributed to the disasters, and that of all the causes assigned as having contributed in any degree to all and each of those accidents, negligence or mistakes, with “ insuflici-mt establishment or too long invars of duty,” which are almost t! same thing, constitute more than half. We have said that the number of accidents lias been declining ; but our satisfaction with this discovery is somewhat damped by observing that tlie number of deaths has increased. In 1875 only seventeen persons were killed on railways frem causes beyond the rown control; while in 1876 the number rose to thirty-eight. It is sm.ali consolation to feel that if accidents are less likely their consequences are more fatal, and that what they lose in frequency they gain in destructiveness. More cheering is the evidence that the can-es of these accidents seem now to be thoroughly understood, and that tlie means of preventing them are so well known that the public lias to some extent its safety in its own hands. It is, perhaps, not altogether reassuring to consider that while these remedies have been so long known they have been so sparingly adopted. But the public could insist on them, if it choose, and after a snifi lent number of lives have been sacrificed to vested interests possibly it will. The same conditions, as Captain Tyler pointed out last year, are constantly recurring. For the want of extra lines or sidings good) trains are constantly shunted on to passenger Hues, and only too frequently when passenger trains are due. The rails are slippery, or the view is obstructed, or tlie signal arrangements are inefficient, or a signal acts imperfectly, or tlie guards do not hear the brake whi-tle from the engine, Tlie engine-driver is not ns cautious as lie ought to be. Ho is accustomed to pass the distance signal at speed, and does not expect to find any obstruction so near it. He miscalculates his ability to stop bis train, and a col ision is the riatiiral result. Even where the block system is in force tlie interval of space which it is tlie object of that system to secure is reduced to almost nothing by the conditions iindor which it is worked. As these are the well-known causes of railway accidents of this class, so arc the remedies equally well known and obvious. Lines and sidings require to bo increased. Great reforms are required in the signalling raichiiiory. And the securities against collision provided by the block system must bo stringently enfor -ed. And then, in the opinion of Captain Tyler, “ with continuous breaks in the hands of the enginedrivers, to enable them to stop their trains without fail, without being dependent upon the attention or assist nice of the guards, and within reasonable distances, it is to be hoped that the collisions in this important class will be materially diminished in number, and will be attended with less serious consequences.”