§ LORD COTTESLOErose to call attention to the delay which took place in the preparation of the Returns of Railway Accidents required by the 34 & 35 Vict. c. 78. He did not intend, on the present occasion, to discuss the question of railway accidents. In regard of the prevention of such accidents he believed Railway Companies would be more influenced by publicity and public opinion than by any Acts of Parliament. Various enactments had been passed with the view of enforcing on Railway Companies their obligations towards the public. By the 34 & 35 Vict. certain Returns of accidents were required to be made by the Companies; but there had been great delay in the presentation of these Returns. His purpose in now drawing attention to this state of things was to induce the Government to enforce on the 375 Companies the due performance of their statutory obligations.
§ THE EARL OF DUNMOREsaid, that the Question which had been put to him by the noble Lord opposite (Lord Cottesloe) had already been anwered, inasmuch as the Returns to which he had made reference had been already presented to Parliament, together with similar Returns for the first three months of the present year. But he must point out the annual Return of railway accidents had been laid before Parliament this year at a much earlier date than in any previous year since the Regulation of Railways Act of 1871 came into operation; and by the arrangement which had recently been made for laying these Returns before Parliament every three months, all information, with the most minute details regarding railway accidents and the causes that led to them, would be in possession of Parliament and the public within a very short time after the expiration of each succeeding quarter. With regard to the Returns for the first three months of the present year, there had been more delay than would occur in future, owing to the form of the new Returns differing materially from those printed before, which had necessitated the setting up of new type. But now that the new form had been set up the printers stated that they would be able to print off the Returns in a very few days. It might be well for him to state to the House that the greater portion of the general Report upon railway accidents which was prepared every year by Captain Tyler was already in the printer's hands, and he thought that, in all probability, he would be in a position to lay that Report upon the Table of their Lordship's House within a month from the present date. The noble Lord opposite (Lord Cottesloe) had called attention to the great delay which occurred; but it must be borne in mind that the information obtained from the Railway Companies with regard to accidents since the passing of the Regulation of Railways Act, 1871, had very largely increased. The Return of railway accidents for the year 1870 consisted of only 24 pages, and was not presented till the 6th of March 1871, whereas the Return of 1874 consisted of 287 pages, and had been presented to Parliament on the 5th instant. In the preparation of this Return the very greatest accuracy 376 was required, and owing to the enormous mass of manuscript forms which the Board of Trade received, the work was exceedingly heavy. This Return for 1874 was not only larger in bulk than the one for 1870, but several analytical Tables had been added to it demanding much care and time for their preparation. This greatly enhanced the value of the Return. The Return of 1870 was simply a bare record of facts, with only two summaries attached to it; whereas the present Return gave as fully as possible the causes of all train accidents and all details relative to axles, tyres, rails, and rolling-stock generally. In the Return for 1870 there were only 115 servants returned as having been killed, and 129 as having been injured, of whom no classification was made; whereas in 1874 there were 788 returned as killed and 2,815 as injured; and, as would be seen on reference to the Tables, these accidents were divided into 20 classes, which showed the nature of the occupation in which each person was engaged when he met with the accident. In the same way the accidents to trains and passengers were subjected to detailed analysis. In addition to all that, a considerable time was necessarily taken up by printing this Return. There was, he thought, no reason for stating that as a general rule the Railway Companies did not send in the information required by the Regulation Act without unnecessary delay, and this remark applied particularly to the large Companies. It would not be practicable for a large Company like the Great Northern, the Midland, or the London and Northwestern, to send in the Return of an accident which happened at the furthest point of their system by the next day, as the Return of such an accident had to be forwarded by the officer of the Company on the spot where it happened to the head offices of the Company, where-ever they might be situated, entered in the books at those offices, and then sent to the Board of Trade from the chief office. There was, he also thought, every disposition on the part of the Companies to cheerfully afford all the particulars and details that were required of them. By the arrangement proposed for publishing the Returns of these accidents quarterly instead of annually, and by strengthening in some way the department charged with the collection 377 of these statistics, he believed there would in future be no cause for any delay.
LORD HOUGHTONthanked the noble Earl (the Earl of Dunmore) for the testimony he had borne to the willingness of Railway Companies to make the Returns, and to do so without unnecessary delay. He believed the Railway Companies were desirous of complying in every particular with the requirements of the Act.
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMthougt that the Returns were consider-ably swollen by accidents which were not intended to come within the category contained in the 5th clause of the Act. The clause required that the Returns should be of accidents which occurred in or about the working of railways or in buildings connected with them, or attributable to any mischance in the course of working them, but the Returns included many accidents which could not in strictness be said to be connected with railways. For instance, the horses employed by the Railway Companies, like some horses otherwise employed, were disposed to be vicious and to kick those who groomed them. Surely kicks inflicted by horses in the stables of Rail-way Companies were not intended to come with the category of the 5th clause; but they were returned by some Companies. So were accidents which had occurred to boys while sliding down the handrails of railway bridges, and to stokers who had fallen down the ladders of stokeholes, and accidents which had been caused by railway waggons coming in contact with railway posts, though those waggons were not driven by servants of the Companies; accidents occurring to persons working in the work-shops and warehouses of the Companies. Among the accidents returned as rail-way accidents was one caused to a lady by putting her foot through a hole in her dress while walking under a railway bridge. He thought the Board of Trade might interfere in the matter so as to limit the Returns to accidents within the purview of the Act.
§ LORD CARLINGFORD, as being the official author of the Act of 1871, well remembered the difficulty which had been experienced in defining the accidents which should come within Clause 5. The object was to include enough, and not to bring in too much. 378 He did not say the wording of the clause had been quite successful; but, on the other hand, he did not understand the noble Duke (the Duke of Buckingham) to propose that it should be changed. He concurred with the noble Duke in thinking that some of the accidents included in the Returns were not such as it had been intended to bring within the Act, and he thought the Board of Trade would exercise a wise discretion in omitting such cases from the public Returns. However, he deprecated any alteration in the wording of the Act.
§ THE EARL OF DUNMOREsaid, that the Board of Trade had already exercised its discretion in expunging ridiculous Returns, and the matter referred to by the noble Duke was at this moment receiving the attention of the Department.