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by Robert W. McLeod (Author)
At the dawn of the 20th century, the number of persons being killed on railroads in the United States was nothing short of appalling. Newspapers were replete with railroad-wreck stories, sometimes described in only three sentences but, still publicized and often in gruesome detail. Horrendously fatal accidents were a near-daily occurrence somewhere in the country. Statistics from 1907 indicate that, since the founding of the railroad industry, almost 12,000 railroad-related deaths per year occurred in the United States. A major problem was employees not interpreting train orders correctly, which frequently led to trains on the same track meeting head-on unexpectedly-what has been trivialized as "a cornfield meet." While the bulk of the U.S. problem lay with mistakes made by employees in not adhering to rules and regulations (some with habitual disregard), too, the condition of many railroads had deteriorated severely since their construction and this factor contributed heavily to casualties. In particular, inexpensive wooden bridges had aged and deteriorated to the point that high water easily weakened and even destroyed them, leaving a gaping opening into which an entire train could pile upon itself.
