EAILWAY ACCIDENTS. 



The chances therefore of safety for life in the case of any 

 individual traveller were 1,000,000 to 3, or 333,333 to 1. 



In like manner, 24*44 in every million were wounded, maimed, 

 or more or less injured. The chances against personal injury 

 in the case of each individual were therefore 1,000,000 to 24'44, 

 or very nearly 40,000 to 1. 



Notwithstanding the gravity of some of the accidents which 

 are recorded, it must therefore be acknowledged that there 

 is no very great amount of danger in railway travelling. 



16. The classification of accidents to passengers into such as 

 arise from causes beyond their control, and which proceed from 

 their own imprudence and want of due caution, merits especial 

 attention. It appears that in 1850-1, more than half the acci- 

 dents fatal to life belonged to this class. But the most remark- 

 able feature of these accidents is the immense proportion of the 

 entire number which are fatal. Of the accidents which arise 

 from causes beyond the control of the passenger, only 1 in 18 

 results in loss of life, while more than the half of those arising 

 from imprudence are fatal. 



17. These remarkable proportions are equally manifested in 

 1847-8, and 1850-1, and as we have found them also to prevail 

 in other periods, they may be regarded as a fixed law of personal 

 locomotion by railway. 



The railway traveller will therefore do well to remember that 

 small as is the amount of risk he incurs, one-half of it depends 

 on his own incaution, and may be altogether eliminated by his 

 own prudence and vigilance, and further that the part of the 

 risk which arises from his imprudence is for the most part 

 the risk of his life, and not merely the risk of personal injury. 



18. It appears further that the transport of a million of 

 passengers 100 miles, costs the lives of eleven railway servants 

 and five strangers who chance to be on the road, and produces 

 more or less bodily injury to five of the former and one of the 

 latter class. 



In the gravity of the accidents from which these latter classes 

 suffer, nothing is more remarkable than the large proportion of 

 them which are fatal to life, and which arise from imprudence 

 on the part of the sufferer. 



Thus, of fifteen railway servants who incurred accidents, 

 eleven were killed, one-half of whom suffered through their 

 own want of due caution. 



Of six strangers and trespassers who suffered from accidents, 

 five were killed. 



19. In fine, it appears from the table that in 1847-8, the 

 transport of a million of passengers 100 miles, cost the lives of 



168 



