Fatal Collision in Georgetown
A brickyard laborer is struck and killed by a Northern Pacific train after miscalculating the engine's speed.
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.
Henry Swanson, an employee at Henry Lohse's brickyard in South Seattle, was instantly killed at about 6 o'clock last evening by the Northern Pacific train due in the city from Portland. The train was nearly an hour behind time and moving at approximately thirty-five miles an hour. Engineer C.E. Davis, the only eyewitness, reported that he saw a man walking along the track near Georgetown. Despite warning whistles, the man stepped onto the tracks, apparently miscalculating the distance. The pilot of the engine struck Swanson, carrying his body ninety feet. Mayor Ronald, who was a passenger on the train, attempted to aid the man, but life was already extinct. An inquest is scheduled for today at Bonney & Stewart's.
“Davis thought the man knew what he was doing, but, if he did, he miscalculated the distance.”
Railroad safety and pedestrian crossings have remained a contentious issue in industrial corridors like Georgetown for over a century. The rapid expansion of rail lines through growing neighborhoods often left residents to navigate dangerous transit zones on foot, a struggle that mirrors contemporary debates over transit safety and urban infrastructure in South Seattle.
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