Failure™ Magazine

The Great White Slope

Remembering the deadliest avalanche in U.S. history.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under History

What impact did this incident have on future railroad safety?
One real problem leading up to this incident concerned communications. The railroad had been relying heavily on telegraphs to report weather and the position of its trains. As a result of this accident, there was a push towards making better use of wireless communications.

The U.S. Post Office Department also made it a rule that all railroad cars carrying mail would have to be metal rather than wood. That’s because ten of 11 mail clerks perished.

And while this wasn’t a watershed case it was part of the movement toward making companies aware that they had certain responsibilities in regards to safety. It was one more accident that pushed in the direction of holding corporate America responsible for negligence.

Was the railroad held liable for the disaster?
The railroad was held liable by a jury. The verdict was later appealed and the [Washington State] Supreme Court overturned the ruling, saying that negligence was not in the evidence presented. The jury finding was a reflection of the anti-railroad sentiment that existed in the early twentieth century.

Are snowslides still an issue for trains running through the Cascades today?
Today trains run through that eight-mile tunnel and pass through much lower on the mountain, so the tracks are not on steep, precipitous terrain. Also, we understand avalanches much better today and there is an active avalanche control program. When a particular slope is near sliding they take World War II-era howitzers and fire explosive charges at the slope, deliberately causing an avalanche. Then they use dump trucks and earth moving equipment to clean up the debris. Basically they force avalanches to happen when they want them to happen—when they are prepared for them and when there will be nobody in their path.

What makes the Wellington avalanche unique in the annals of disaster history?
Trains are something we normally associate with civilization and industry, whereas avalanches are exotic and associated with wilderness. To have an avalanche hit a train and knock it off the side of a mountain brings together two worlds that we don’t normally associate with each other.

Also, avalanches typically happen far away from any population center. If an avalanche kills anyone it will usually victimize just one or two skiers, who probably caused the avalanche in the first place. You don’t get many avalanches that inflict a large number of casualties.

Official Web site of ‘The White Cascade’

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