LONG HOURS AND HEALTH.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1131, 28 December 1883, Page 3

LONG HOURS AND HEALTH.

Inquiries into railway accidents have shown over and over again that the safety of railway travelling is daily imperilled by the employment of signalmen and pointsmen nnder circumstances which render the exercise of vigilance in their very responsible duties difficult or impossible. Many a so-called accident, involving destruction of human life, has plainly arisen because an unfortunate signalman or pointsman has at last failed to be on the alert at his post, after 12 or more boms of continuous and exhausting night-work. Major-General Hutchinson, in reporting to the Board of Trade on' an accident which recently happened at Essendine on the Great Northern railway, describes it as dnetoan extraordinary mistake on the part of a signalman in moving a lever. He adds : “ He had no motive for the action, and was not in the habit of moving the lever. It must, however, be remembered that at the time of the collision he had been on doty for ll£ hours; and it is by no means improbable that he had become drowsy, and had nnconscionsly pnlled over and then pnt back this lever without recollecting what he had done. It is, I am certain, unreasonable to expect signalmen to retain the full nse of their powers at the end of 12 hours’ night work ; and I would strongly recommend that in those signal-cabins where the work is not sufficiently important to allow the regular employment of three signalmen, some arrangement should be made for dividing the night-work into two periods of six hours each. Any such arrangement wonld, I know, ho unpopular with the signalmen, bnt 1 am convinced that it wonld condnce to the safety of railway travelling.”