RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. 



the bridge as the railway sunk under it, and dragged the tender 

 with it. The fireman, who was upon the tender, was thrown off 

 upon the side of the railway beyond the end of the bridge, and 

 killed. The passenger coaches had not cleared the bridge when 

 it sunk under them, and their connection with the tender was 

 broken. The carriages which had the passengers were preci- 

 pitated into the river from a height of 36 feet above the surface 

 of the water, the depth of which was 10 feet. 



It appeared afterwards that the tender in following the engine 

 had been derailed, and was dragged along, rubbing hard against 

 the parapet wall at the end of the bridge. It was left standing 

 apart at 50 feet from the water's edge and 3 feet off the rails, the 

 engine having broken away from it, and proceeded with the 

 driver, the only individual who escaped, to the adjacent station. 



6. Having investigated the circumstances which produce that 

 class of accidents against which the sufferer cannot effectually 

 protect himself by measures of precaution, it remains now to 

 notice those which arise from imprudence, or from the want of 

 that vigilance and care on the part of the traveller, which the 

 very nature of railway transport renders necessary. 



7. The railway commissioners publish periodically reports of 

 all accidents attended with personal injury which take place on 

 railways. The most certain method of ascertaining the manner 

 in which imprudence or negligence operates in the production 

 of these disasters, will be to take from the reports those acci- 

 dents which have occurred to passengers, and to classify them 

 according to their causes. We have accordingly taken indiscri- 

 minately a hundred such occurrences, and have classified them 

 in the following table : 



8. Analysis of 100 Accidents produced by Imprudence of 

 Passengers. 



180 



