The human price of stupidity and ‘railroader culture’. Most of the actual issues with link-and-pin couplers were definitively solved by the Bishop ‘couplihg knife’ (which was effective enough that a wide range of railroads rapidly adopted its use… not just because it staved off the need for Janney or other couplers, or buffers.
The problem was said to be that no “self-respecting railroad man” would be caught dead with a Bishop knife in their back pocket, let alone actually using one. Not one of those fingers ‘needed’ to be lost… or was lost by hard-hearted rule manipulation or restriction of access to proper PPE or operating safety on the part of the railroads.
I had 38 years and saw the same thing, after the E.H.Harriman awards the coverups were done away with. There was competition between railroads to earn the top award.
The old story was that back then, the trainmaster or yardmaster would ask to see your hands. Those missing fingers were deemed experienced.
They are the lucky ones. The unlucky were those crushed between cars when equipment either was mismatched or failed.
I’ve heard of tools being devised to keep brakemen and switchmen from needing to go in-between cars. Most were described as cumbersome and hard to use.