Wreck requires inquiry

Editor's note: This editorial appeared in the Jan. 14, 1960 edition of the Wellington Enterprise, the first issue published following the Jan. 10, 1960 train derailment which resulted in four deaths and dozens of injuries, 50 years ago this week.

It would be demanding the obvious to insist that the New York Central wreck in Wellington be vigorously and exhaustively investigated.

These tragedies always are -- by the federal government, by state authorities, and by the railroad itself.

But the alarming conjecture that excessive speed and faulty brakes caused the crash underscores the need for prompt and public fact-finding.

If there was carelessness, or if somehow the safety standards which are the trademark of the railroads were compromised, then the public certainly should know of it.

Or if, as everyone will hope, these factors did not enter into this tragedy, then the railroad will want that fact known, too.

Meanwhile, the public's sympathy goes out to the victims of this crash -- to those who survive the dead, and to the living who are suffering painful injuries.

Because the railroad safety record is generally excellent, an accident is an experience in terror which few have ever faced. But those who have will never forget it.

Railroad wrecks come with no warning. There is only the sudden rumbling and jolting deceleration, the violent shaking and throbbing as the comfortable monotony of a railroad coach changes suddenly to crashing, noisy, nightmarish confusion.

Then a moment of unbelievable silence, followed by the noise again -- the screams of the injured and the terrified, the hissing of the mangled steam lines, the irregular popping and sputtering of the broken air hoses.

Chaos. Then confusion. And finally -- slowly, painfully -- order once more, as the doctors and the police and the uninjured passengers who still have their wits about them tend the injured and the dying.

It is an experience never fully erased from memory, a moment of tragedy which comes flashing back time after time after time.

Safety is the proud tradition of the American railroads. And certainly no one -- the public, the government, or the carriers -- will tolerate any trifling with the rigid standards which have made the railroads safe.

That's why this tragedy in Wellington must be thoroughly and speedily investigated -- to find out what went wrong, and to set the defenses against a recurrence.