1875.] Railway Accidents. 13 
railway companies feel that any appeal against these reports 
is useless, and practically judgment is allowed to go by 
default. 
‘‘In making their reports, the officers of the Board of 
Trade are in the position of ex post facto judges, and I need 
hardly point out that there 1s a great difference, to use an 
expression of our late President, Mr. Hawksley, between 
looking into the events of the week that is past, and looking 
into the middle of next week; and should the country at 
any time become the purchasers of the railways, these 
officers will soon find the difference in their position when 
the responsibility of working the lines devolves upon them. 
** Captain Tyler, in his valuable Report on Railway Ac- 
cidents in 1872, says: ‘ Whatever be the amount of care 
taken, the item of human fallibility will still remain, and 
will always be the cause of a certain number of accidents.’ 
And he states that in 180 cases of accidents out of 238, 
‘negligence, want of care, or mistakes of officers, were 
apparent.’ 
*‘ This is a subject to which for years past I have devoted 
a great deal of attention and anxious thought, and I attach 
much more importance to the item of ‘human fallibility ” 
than Captain Tyler appears to do.” 
To these remarks Captain Tyler replied as follows, in 
a paper read by him before the Society of Arts in May 
last :— 
“When Mr. Harrison attributes to the author that he 
does not sufficiently appreciate the element of human frailty 
as contributing to accidents on railways, and leaves it to be 
understood that improved arrangements will not materially 
lessen the number of accidents and their serious results, the 
author would venture to reply that he estimates that cause 
of accident at no more and no less than has actually been 
found by experience of many years to attach to it.” 
This subject also was referred to by the Select Committee 
of the House of Lords, who, in their report of last year, 
remarked :— 
“It may be confidently stated that the general safety of 
railway travelling would be increased by the more extensive 
employment of the block and of the interlocking systems. 
Some witnesses stated that these precautionary arrange- 
ments and mechanical appliances tend to lessen the sense 
of responsibility in the engine drivers. Such an effect may 
have been produced, but, nevertheless, the advantages re- 
sulting from the introduction of these systems are pratti- 
cally admitted by all the witnesses, and, in the judgment of 
the Committee, decidedly preponderate.”’ 
