ACCIDENT PREVENTION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144351, 16 March 1914, Page 3

ACCIDENT PREVENTION.

Owing to the high accident rate in tho United States, Americans have the reputation of holding life cheap. This is deserved, but it is only fair to them to say that thero is a widespread campaign for tho reduction of tho number of accidents to tho minimum. Mr. John Kirby, a member of tho American Trade Commission now visiting Australia, has given tho Sydney Daily Telegraph some interesting information about this movement. Of course, no amount of money can outweigh tho lose of a life to tho stricken family, but tho economic loss in America through industrial accidents lias boon put at £50,000,000 a year. Those who aro behind the now movement believe that 50 per cent, of these accidents might be avoided, saving the community 20,000 lives each year, and preventing about a million bodily injuries of varying degree. Soroo of tho statistics relating to improved methods are impressive. One railway company brought down tho serious injuries to its workshop hands by 63 per cent, in ten months by tho installation of safety devices ami the instruction of tho workmen in exercising proper caution. The Steel Trust has reduced its serious and fatal accidents by 43.2 per cent, in eight years. In this one business 2300 mon escape who would have been injured under the old conditions. The motto of employer and employee should be: “It is bettor to ho careful than crippled.” It is the little things that count most. According to Air. Kirby, statistics show that it is not the big calamities —those which are reported in tho newspapers of the entire country—but the isolated oases, that have the largest influence upon the totals. More men aro killed by tho falling of ladders and scaffolding, and similar accidents, than in any other way. More accidents happen on tho farms, in proportion to the population, than in tho factories. The officials of the Chicago and NorthWestern Railroad found that tho “big’ train accidents, such as collisions and derailments, did not have a largo influence, relatively, upon the entire number of casualties. Only one of each thirteen men that were killed, and only one of each thirty-four men that wore injured, wore the victims of a “big” accident; tho others wore killed or injured in the lesser, or isolated, accidents.