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Text beneath the tables of fatalities and injuries
From this return it appears, that the number of railway accidents of a public nature has considerably diminished, the last five months of the year 1840 showing 28 accidents, 22 deaths, and 131 cases of injury, while the 12 months of 1841 give only 29 accidents, 24 deaths, and 71 cases of injury. Nor should it be forgotten in making the comparison, that the end of the present year has been remarkable for a succession of weather most unfavourable for railways, and that several of the most serious accidents, including those on the Great Western and Brighton lines, would in all probability not have occurred but for this circumstance. It is very satisfactory to observe, that a marked diminution has taken place in the class of accidents, such as collisions, arising chiefly from mismanagement, or defective arrangments. A great proportion of accidents which occurred in the end of 1840, and beginning of 1841, were of the same nature, no fewer than 17 accidents having occurred in eight months, from August 1840 to April 1841, from the single cause of collisions by trains or engines overtaking others travelling on the same line. During the nine months from April 1841 to January 1842, only five collisions of this nature occurred, and those, with one exception, unattended with fatal consequences. This diminution in the number of collisions appears too great to be the result of accident, and may fairly be attributed in a considerable degree to the more general adoption of the precautions suggested by the Inspector-General, and recommended by this department, viz., the erection of proper fixed signals at stations, the adoption of a better description of tail-lamps and hand-signals, the enforcement of more attention to signals on the part of servants, and the adoption of proper timetables for all trains, including luggage trains, with a view to preserving regularity in the traffic, and proper intervals between successive trains. [489]
Related material
Bibliography
Railway Times. 5 (1842): 488-89. Hathi Trust online version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 3 September 2018.
Last modified 3 September 2018