The Price of a Streetcar Accident
A Seattle streetcar company is ordered to pay a record-breaking $15,000 settlement after a collision leaves a passenger permanently disabled.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The largest award in a damage suit for personal injuries ever brought in by a jury in King County was rendered yesterday in Judge Osborn’s department of the Superior Court in favor of Mrs. Annie Sears against the Seattle Consolidated Street Railway Company. After a trial by jury upon a claim for $25,000, the jury yesterday morning gave a verdict for the plaintiff, fixing her damages at $15,000. Mrs. Annie Sears is the wife of Frank Sears, formerly managing editor of the Victoria Times. On September 16 last, while visiting Seattle, she was a passenger on a car headed to Fremont. A wagon was on the track ahead; the motorman, despite ringing his bell, failed to slacken speed, resulting in a collision that threw both vehicles from the track. Mrs. Sears was thrown violently to the ground, suffering a concussion of the spine. Physicians testify she can never recover, and she was brought into court on a litter.
“Mrs. Sears was thrown violently to the ground and suffered concussion of the spine, from which she has never recovered, and from which, the physicians say, she never can recover.”
Today's transit-heavy Seattle still struggles with the legacy of streetcar-era infrastructure and the ongoing legal battles over liability in collisions. The record-breaking payout in 1892 mirrors the massive, modern-day settlements against transit agencies when accidents occur due to operator negligence.
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