The Safety of British Railways. By H. Rayner Wilson. (P.
S. King and Son. 3s. 6d. net.)—We have improved the machine ad thoroughly that accidents are reduced to a minimum, or, rather, should have been so reduced, had as much been done for the man. Of course the man mind always remain the element of uncertainty. If no one were overworked, if all precautions were taken against the employment of the epileptic and the sufferers from heart and brain disease, still the possibility of sudden aberrations, mental or physical, would continue. But we can anyhow congratulate ourselves on much achievement in this direction. In 1908 not a single passenger was killed in a railway accident. In 107 eighteen Were killed, being an average of one in 70,000,000. In this year the non-fatal injuries wero 534; the number fell to 283 in 1908, or one in four million and a half. This is satisfactory. Mr. Wilson's volume is full of interesting detail. He gives us the history of the subject, with tables for what we may describe as a generation. In 1872, the earliest year for which figures are supplied, nineteen were killed, or one in 17,000,000, and 1,233 injured, or one in 350,000.
Previous page
