406
Opinion of the Court
to the new standard proceeded slowly,7 partly as a result of the sheer number of competing designs on the market. The lack of standardized couplers itself caused safety problems,8 and reformers pushed Congress to pass legislation requiring the use of standardized automatic couplers.
In 1893, satisfied that an automatic coupler could meet the demands of commercial railroad operations and, at the same time, be manipulated safely, see Clark 206, Congress passed the SAA. Its success in promoting switchyard safety was stunning. Between 1877 and 1887, approximately 38% of all railworker accidents involved coupling. Id., at 179. That percentage fell as the railroads began to replace link-and-pin couplers with automatic couplers. The descent accelerated during the SAA's 7-year grace period and by 1902, only two years after the SAA's effective date, coupling accidents constituted only 4% of all employee accidents. In absolute numbers, coupler-related accidents dropped from nearly 11,000 in 1892 to just over 2,000 in 1902, even though the number of railroad employees steadily increased during that decade.
7 The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, for instance, adopted a policy of putting automatic couplers on all new cars and on every car that went into the shop for repairs. Sen. Hearings, at 27. In 1890, approximately 10% of all freight cars in use in the United States were equipped with automatic couplers and power brakes. Wilner 54. By 1893, approximately 16% of freight cars were so equipped. Ibid. Witnesses testifying before the Senate Committee in 1892 placed the figure between 12% and 20%. Sen. Hearings, at 12 (12% of cars fitted with Janney-style couplers); id., at 27, 42 (20% of cars fitted with mutually interchangeable couplers).
8 The new automatic couplers had design modifications that permitted them to couple with link-and-pin style couplers, but not easily. See Clark 192 ("[T]he knuckle of the Janney was notched in order to allow the opposing link to enter the drawhead to the point of coupling . . . but in practical service it was most difficult to effect"); S. Rep. 1049, 52d Cong., 1st Sess., 5 (1892) ("These representative men, speaking for thousands of their associates, say that what they desire is uniformity, and that the danger of their calling has increased rather than diminished by the introduction of different types of couplers").
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