§ MR. BENTINCKasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether, in consequence of the repeated recurrence of railway accidents, it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce, during the present Session, any measure founded on the Report of the Committee on Railway Accidents, which was laid upon the table of the House in the year 1858?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, nothing-had occurred during the last year which, in the opinion of the Board of Trade, rendered it expedient to legislate for the management of railways, or to interfere by legislation for the prevention of accidents. The accidents which had occurred during the last year to passenger trains had been somewhat fewer than in the year which preceded it. Taking both years, he found that there was a decrease of 48 per cent in the number of persons killed in consequence of accidents to passenger trains in 1862 as compared with 1861; while there was a diminution of 34 per cent in the number of persons injured. The exact figures were these—the accidents to passenger trains in 1861 were 56, the number of passengers killed in consequence 46, and the number injured 780. It should, however, be borne in mind that the number carried by passenger trains during that period amounted to 173,721,139 persons; so that there was only 1 passenger killed in every 3,760,000, and 1 injured in every 220,000 conveyed. In 1862 the number of accidents were 51, or 9 per cent less than in the previous year, there being 24 passengers killed and 509 injured. The traffic returns not having been made up for 1862, he could not make a comparison between the number of persons killed and injured and the entire number conveyed by train; but the contrast would, he thought, be found to be even more favourable this year to the last, taking into account the new lines which had been opened and the probably increased number of passengers conveyed. Under these circumstances there was, in his opinion, no increased necessity for the interference of Parliament on the subject.