[PRCo] Re: Baltimore LRV Accident

[Edward H. Lybarger]

It wasn't just the accident that pushed PRCo into the first bankruptcy.
Remember, they were insured for some of that.  But the business wasn't doing
so hot, what with all the underlying security holders needing to be paid and
a high rate of price inflation without commensurate income inflation.  They
did get a fare boost effective in June 1918; I don't know offhand the
bankruptcy date.

The company's financial structure resembled matchsticks, as Fred says.  Not
unique to the industry.

Ed 

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:51 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Baltimore LRV Accident

For the two of you who responded, I said $3 million in property damage to
cover the light rail car.   

I made no estimate of how many fake law suits there will be from people who
really were not hurt but suddenly have horrendous backaches and will require
lifetime disability payments.   

There was a minor accident in 1896 that bankrupted the Pennsylvania Traction
Company.   Out of ashes of that was formed Conestoga Traction Company.
What happened.   A car got away on wet rail greased by bugs in the summer.
A single truck car with an 18-foot long body loaded with over 100 people
went into a roughly 50 foot radius curve at the bottom of Chicques Hill and
overturned into, appropriately enough, Woodward Hill Cemetery in Columbia,
Pennsylvania killing 8 and injuring most of the others.   Truth?   Company's
financial string was stretched to a thread before the accident.   

You want me to take it closer to home?   Pittsburgh Railways had a pre
Christmas 1917 accident where a car rolled over at Smithfield and Carson
Sts.   This was the accident that resulted in the first Pittsburgh Railways
bankruptcy because they were already spread out so thin they couldn't cover
one accident.   

Remember the accident with Chicago PCC 7078 that turned left in front of the
gasoline truck in 1949 or 1950 causing 8,000 gallons of gasoline to erupt
into flames.   I remember the pictures in LIFE magazine of the corpses
wedged into the rear doors of the car and incinerated there because they
could not escape.   (Resulted in the 1952 cars for San Francisco having
outward folding doors.)   I have no idea how the City of Chicago paid for
all those claims ... the people in late afternoon rush plus all the
buildings that were torched too.   


On Mar 24, 2010, at 1:26 PM, Fred Schneider wrote:

> Baltimore accident yesterday.
> From the position of the tractor, it looks like he made a left turn in
front of the light rail car.   The best rearward visibility would be from
the mirror on the driver's side.   Guess he just chose not to look before
turning left.   I hope the freight company has a $3 million property damage
policy plus bodily injury.   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.wbaltv.com/slideshow/news/22918366/detail.html?qs=;s=1;p=/n
> ews/;dm=ss;w=400
> 
> Dietrich and Allman:   Please contact me off list.
>