New York Laws
Article 3 - Construction, Operation and Management
71 - Duties Imposed.

§ 71. Duties imposed. It shall be the duty of every railroad
corporation operating its road by steam:

1. To lay, in the construction of new and in the renewal of existing
switches, upon freight or passenger main line tracks, switches on the
principle of either the so-called Tyler, Wharton, Lorenz, or split-point
switch, or some other kind of safety switch, which shall prevent the
derailment of a train, when such switch is misplaced or a switch
interlocked with distant signals.

2. To erect and thereafter maintain such suitable warning signals at
every road, bridge, or structure which crosses the railroad above the
tracks, where such warning signals may be necessary, for the protection
of employees on top of cars from injury.

3. To use upon every new freight car, built or purchased for use,
couplers which can be coupled and uncoupled automatically, without the
necessity of having a person guide the link, lift the pin by hand, or go
between the ends of the cars.

4. To attach to every car used for passenger transportation an
automatic air-brake or other form of safety-power brake, applied from
the locomotive, excepting cars attached to freight trains, the schedule
rate of speed of which does not exceed twenty miles an hour.

5. To provide each closed car in use in every passenger train owned or
regularly used upon a railroad, with such tools as the commissioner of
transportation may require, to be placed where directed by the
commissioner.

6. To provide, in each passenger car, where the line of road shall
exceed forty continuous miles in length, a suitable receptacle for
water, with a cup or drinking utensil attached upon or near such
receptacle, and to keep such receptacle, while the car is in use,
constantly supplied with cool water.

Every corporation, person or persons, operating such railroad, and
violating any of the provisions of this section, except subdivision six,
shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each offense,
and the further penalty of ten dollars for each day that it shall omit
or neglect to comply with any of such provisions. For every violation of
the provisions of the sixth subdivision of this section every such
corporation shall be liable to a penalty of twenty-five dollars for each
offense.

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