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| (Pamphlet, 1884) (Special Collections, George F. Smith Library of the Health Sciences) |
New Jersey has a long history of railroad-related health and safety issues. Here are a few highlights:
1833: Train Wreck
Future railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt and former US President John Quincy Adams were onboard the Camden & Amboy Railroad line in central New Jersey when the train’s axel broke and wagons tumbled off the track killing two of the twenty-four on board. Many passengers were injured including Vanderbilt, who broke his leg. Another passenger, a doctor who suffered broken ribs in the accident, tended to the injured until help arrived 3 hours later. President Adams wrote of the event in his personal diary:
“The scene of suffering was excruciating. Many women and a child, scattered along the road, bleeding, mangled, groaning, writing in torture and dying, was a trial of feeling to which I had never before been called. (John Quincy Adams, 1833)
1855: Train Wreck
While traveling in reverse to avoid a head-on collision on the Camden & Amboy Railroad line, a train derailed after hitting two horses that were pulling a carriage across the tracks. Twenty-two passengers died. The driver of the wagon, a physician named Dr. Heineken, survived the accident unscathed.
1877: Safety Warning
The New Jersey Board of Health Annual Report highlighted the danger to people in the vicinity of the railroads:
“The evils arising from the use of our railroads as foot paths, has invited our attention. At the instance of a member of our board our most prominent railroad company has kept for the last two years a record of all accidents happening on their lines. What was recognized by experience is now demonstrated by numbers. Very many of the accidents by which lives are sacrificed arise from the use of the railroad track by tramps in their wanderings from place to place or by others for convenience in passing to different streets. Life is thus jeoparded, the unpleasantness of mangling accidents is forced upon the public eye, and sometimes other liabilities of accident are involved to passengers. We believe that it should be made a punishable offence to walk thus on railroad tracks, or at least in the case of those roads running more than a specified number of trains each day.”
1884: Surgical Guide to Railroad-Related Injuries
Theodore R. Varick, a prominent New Jersey physician, wrote “On Railroad Injuries of the Extremities of the Human Body with Observations on the Site of Amputation and Subsequent Treatment of The Stump.” In this surgical guide, Varick draws a sharp distinction between horse-drawn modes of transportation and trains:
“In the good old days of stage coaching, when travel was limited as a rule to nine inside and three outside, including the driver, the speed of twelve miles an hour was consider a marvel, an occasional upset seldom resulted in more than a simple fracture…[and ]the offices of a surgeon were rarely called in for any other purpose than a simple splint [or] to reduce a dislocation.”
In contrast, Varick observed that:
“…owing to the great weight [of trains], and high rate of speed, injuries inflicted by trains in transit are of the most destructive character, producing comminution [fragmentization] of bone, and laceration and pulpification of soft parts.”
1885: Disease Warning
The New Jersey Board of Health wrote a letter to New Jersey railroad and transportation company officers warning about the spread of disease:
“Gentlemen—The State Board of Health of New Jersey has the honor to address you in the interest of public health in this State. Not only because of anxiety as to the possible introduction and spread of cholera, but because of the intimate and constant relation between public conveyances and the spread of disease, we earnestly advise an expert sanitary inspection of all the property belong to your respective companies….” E. M. Hunt, Secretary Trenton, N.J. March 16th, 1885
1888: First-Aid Kit
Robert Wood Johnson, the co-founder of the New Jersey based pharmaceutical Johnson & Johnson, invented the First-Aid Kit in 1888, when he witnessed how injured railway workers in remote parts of the country frequently failed to receive timely medical attention.
1892: Disease Warning
The New Jersey Board of Health warned that poor sanitation on the railroads could lead to outbreaks of “cholera, typhoid fever, diphtheria, small-pox…”.
1904: Incognito Health Inspection
A NJ health inspector, working incognito, discovered workers doing a poor job cleaning sleeper cars. However, on a second visit, the inspector saw significant improvement, which he attributed to the crew knowing that he was a health inspector.
1906: Drinking Water Inspection
A NJ health inspector observed a railroad worker probing a tank of drinking water with a stick covered with grease stains. When questioned about this practice, the worker noted how using a stick to measure the amount of the water in the tank was an improvement over the previous method of sticking one’s entire arm into the water.
1906: Cleaning Technology
A NJ health inspector noted that railroad workers used an air compressor to blow dust off of cushions.
1910: Flushing Toilets
The NJ Board of Health asked that the Erie Railroad modify a long accepted practice of flushing toilets directly on the tracks. In this particular case, the Board asked that the New York, Susquehanna and Western line close the toilets between the stations of Butler and Beaver Falls, New Jersey, due to possible contamination of the local water supply.
1910: Expectoration
The NJ Board of Health noted that the laws prohibiting spitting on railroad cars had been extended to include trolley cars. The penalty ranged from five to ten dollars.
1951: Train Wreck
The “Broker”, a train named for the high number of Wall Street brokers who rode the line, crashed in Woodbridge, NJ while attempting to cross a temporary wooden trestle built during construction of the New Jersey Turnpike. Eighty-three people died.
1968: Diesel Fumes
The NJ Board of Health followed up on complaints from passengers that diesel fumes were entering into train cars. Health inspectors investigated and found no reason for concern.
2016: Current Safety Tips
The New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety provides railroad safety tips on the website of Office of the Attorney General. A few examples include:
“Always expect a train. Trains operate on one or more tracks at any time in either direction.”
“Pay attention at railroad crossings. Signs and signals indicate where to stop and when trains are coming.”
“Trains cannot swerve or stop quickly. Passenger trains traveling 80 mph take about 2,200 feet to stop or the length of seven football fields.”
compiled by James Galt
References
1833: Train Wreck
John Quincy Adams Personal Diary 1833 here
1855: Train Wreck
Journal of Rutgers University Library 1947 here
1877: Safety Warning
New Jersey Board of Health Annual Report page 31 here
1884: Surgical Guide to Railroad-Related Injuries
“On Railroad Injuries of the Extremities of the Human Body with Observations on the Site of Amputation and Subsequent Treatment of The Stump here
1885: Disease Warning
NJ Board of Health Annual Report here
1888: First-Aid Kit
www.kilmerhouse.com website here
1892: Disease Warning
1892 NJ Board of Health Annual Report page 19 here
1904: Incognito Health Inspection
1904 NJ Board of Health Annual Report page 76 here
1906: Drinking Water Inspection
1906 NJ Board of Health Annual Report page 166 here
1906: Cleaning Technology
1906 NJ Board of Health Report page 166 here
1910: Flushing Toilets
1910 New Jersey Board of Health page 280 here
1910: Expectoration
1910 New Jersey Board of Health Annual Report page 103 here
1951: Train Wreck
My Central Jersey Website here
1968: Diesel Fumes
1968 NJ Board of Health Annual Report page 179 here
2016: Current Safety Tips
NJ State Government Website here