832
RAILWAYS
[ACCIDENT STATISTICS
| 1908. | 1907. | ||||
| Killed | Injured | Killed | Injured | ||
| c. | From falling off platforms upon the ballast | 1 | 105 | … | 110 |
| d. | By other accidents | 1 | 246 | … | 265 |
| Total of passengers | 5 | 863 | 5 | 836 | |
| Servants:— | |||||
| 1. | While loading, unloading or sheeting wagons, trucks and horseboxes | 8 | 4,018 | 5 | 2,899 |
| 2. | While moving goods and luggage in stations or sheds | 2 | 1,992 | 2 | 975 |
| 3. | While working at cranes or capstans | 3 | 411 | 8 | 304 |
| 4. | By the falling of wagon-doors, lamps, bales of goods, &c. | 1 | 583 | … | 390 |
| 5. | While attending to engines at rest | 4 | 2,479 | 4 | 2,363 |
| 6. | From falling off, or when getting on or off, engines or vehicles at rest | 3 | 1,504 | 2 | 1,495 |
| 7. | From falling off, or when getting on or off, platforms | 1 | 483 | 2 | 404 |
| 8. | From falling off ladders, scaffolds, &c. | 11 | 449 | 11 | 400 |
| 9. | By stumbling while walking on the line | 2 | 1,068 | 1 | 1,049 |
| 10. | By being trampled on or kicked by horses while engaged in railway work | 1 | 94 | … | 71 |
| 11. | From being struck by articles thrown from passing trains | … | 7 | … | 6 |
| 12. | From the falling of rails, sleepers, &c., when at work on the line | … | 686 | 1 | 611 |
| 13. | Otherwise injured when at work on the line or in sidings | 5 | 2,182 | 5 | 1,981 |
| 14. | Miscellaneous | 9 | 3,085 | 14 | 2,753 |
| Total of servants | 50 | 19,041 | 55 | 15,701 | |
| (A) | Accidents to trains:- | 1908. United Kingdom |
1907. United Kingdom |
| 1. | Collisions between passenger trains or parts of passenger trains | 43 | 48 |
| 2. | Collisions between passenger trains and goods or mineral trains or light-engines | 78 | 70 |
| 3. | Collisions between goods trains or parts of goods trains and light-engines | 180 | 216 |
| 4. | Collisions between trains and vehicles standing foul of the line | 7 | 22 |
| 5. | Collisions between trains and buffer-stops or vehicles standing against buffers stops:- | ||
| (a) From trains running into stations or sidings at too high a speed | 20 | 17 | |
| (b) From other causes | 15 | 25 | |
| 6. | Trains coming in contact with projections from other trains or vehicles on parallel lines | 30 | 7 |
| 7. | Passenger trains or parts of passenger trains leaving the rails | 94 | 106 |
| 8. | Goods trains or parts of goods trains, light engines, &c., leaving the rails | 407 | 483 |
| 9. | Trains running through gates at level crossings or into other obstacles | 368 | 364 |
| 10. | Fires in trains | 195 | 170 |
| 11. | Miscellaneous | 3 | 4 |
| (B) | Accidents to or failure of rolling stock and permanent-way:- | ||
| 12. | Bursting of boilers or tubes, &c., of engines | 7 | 13 |
| 13. | Failure of machinery, springs, &c., of engines | 61 | 86 |
| 14. | Failure of tires | 125 | 172 |
| 15. | „wheels | 2 | 8 |
| 16. | „axles | 165 | 160 |
| 17. | „couplings | 2,346 | 2,440 |
| 18. | „ropes used in working inclines | … | … |
| 19. | „tunnels, bridges, viaducts, culverts, &c. | 3 | … |
| 20. | Broken rails | 287 | 289 |
| 21. | Flooding of portions of permanent-way | 24 | 40 |
| 22. | Slips in cuttings or embankments | 18 | 28 |
| 23. | Fires at stations or involving injury to bridges or viaducts | 30 | 22 |
| 24. | Miscellaneous | 1 | … |
Percentages.—On British railways the casualties from train accidents, especially fatal injuries, have been reduced to so small a proportion of the number of passengers travelling, or the number of servants employed, that the figures showing the percentages vary from year to year considerably; but in other classes of accidents, In which a large proportion of the cases may be classed as unpreventable, the percentages do not vary greatly. The following are the more significant ratios in the year 1907, as shown in the Board of Trade returns:—
| (a) | Passengers killed in train accidents, approximately | 1 in 83,000,000 | |
| (1908, 0 in 1,500,000,000) | |||
| (b) | Passengers injured in train accidents, approximately | 1 in 3,000,000 | |
| (1908, approximately 1 in 6,000,000.) | |||
| (c) | Servants killed in train accidents:— | ||
| Number of servants killed per 10,000,000 train miles | 0·329 | ||
| Engine drivers, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 5,628 | |
| Firemen, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 12,857 | |
| Passenger guards, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 4,237 | |
| Goods guards and brakemen, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 8,438 | |
| (d) | Servants killed in work about trains, &c. (excluding train accidents), ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 790 |
| Goods guards and brakemen, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 409 | |
| Shunters, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 337 | |
| Engine drivers, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 1,126 | |
| Passenger guards, ratio killed to number employed | 1 in | 1,059 | |
Railway Accidents in America.—The statistics of accidents in America are kept in a form somewhat different from the foregoing. Table XIV. is taken from the Accident Bulletin of the Interstate Commerce Commission (No. 32), the items being numbered to correspond as nearly as practicable with the numbers in the British table (No. X.). The items 7–8 embrace the statistics which most nearly correspond to the items 7–12 in the British table.
| 1909. | 1908. | |||
| Killed. | Injured. | Killed. | Injured. | |
| Passengers:— | ||||
| 1. In train accidents | 131 | 5,865 | 165 | 7,430 |
| 2, 3. Other causes | 204 | 6,251 | 241 | 5,215 |
| Total of passengers | 335 | 12,116 | 406 | 12,645 |
| Servants:— | ||||
| 4. In train accidents | 520 | 4,877 | 642 | 6,818 |
| 5, 6. Other causes | 1,936 | 46,927 | 2,716 | 49,526 |
| Total of servants | 2,456 | 51,804 | 3,358 | 56,344 |
| Trespassing. | Not Trespassing. | Total. | ||||
| Other Persons:— | Killed. | Injured. | Killed. | Injured. | Killed. | Injured. |
| 7. In train accidents | 97 | 171 | 52 | 1202 | 149 | 1373 |
| 8. Struck by trains at highway crossings | 237 | 274 | 696 | 1523 | 933 | 1797 |
| Do. at stations | 421 | 423 | 89 | 259 | 510 | 682 |
| Do. at other places | 3732 | 2063 | 113 | 200 | 3845 | 2263 |
| Other causes | 1125 | 2581 | 94 | 1287 | 1219 | 3868 |
| Total of “other persons” | 5612 | 5512 | 1044 | 4471 | 6656 | 9983 |
The salient feature of Table XIV. is the diminution from 1908 to 1909. This is mainly due to a great falling off in traffic, because of a general business depression; from 1907 to 1909 the reduction in the accident record is still greater. In items 1 and 4 the increase in safety is due in part, no doubt, to the extension of the use of the block system. The accidents to “other persons” cannot readily be compared with items 7–12 in the British record, except as to the totals and a few of the items.
In any comparison between British and American records the first point to be borne in mind is the difference in mileage and traffic. The American railways aggregate approximately ten times the length of the British lines; but in train miles the difference is far less. In the latest years in which comparisons can be made, the passenger journeys in the United Kingdom amounted to 1500 millions (including season-ticket holders, estimated) and the train miles to 428·3 millions, while the corresponding figures in the United States were 873·9 millions and 1171·9 millions. The average length