The Truck That Blocked Main Street
A driver is arrested for obstructing traffic, only for the City Attorney to realize there is no law against it.
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 Peterson, a truck driver for the Stetson & Post Milling Company, charged with obstructing the streets, was discharged from custody yesterday by Judge Glasgow on motion of City Attorney Fortson, who found there was no ordinance covering the case in point. Peterson left his truck all night Monday on Main street in front of the city stables. Only half of the street is planked, and the truck was left standing diagonally across the planking so that teams could not pass without being driven off the planking into the other half of the street which is very muddy and full of dangerous holes. In case of fire, the Tenth street fire engine is always driven down Main street like a whirlwind, and had an alarm been rung in on Monday night there might have been a disastrous collision between the engine and the heavy truck. The matter was reported to Lieut. Osborn, who arrested Peterson and brought him into the municipal court before Judge Glasgow. Mr. Fortson could find no provision in the city ordinances covering this kind of an offense, and having nothing on which to base a complaint, he recommended that the prisoner be released from custody.
“In case of fire the Tenth street fire engine is always driven down Main street like a whirlwind, and had an alarm been rung in on Monday night there might have been a disastrous collision.”
This 1891 frustration over a truck blocking a vital fire route in a half-planked street captures the growing pains of Seattle. Today, the tension over how to share limited urban space between commercial vehicles and public safety remains a central, often litigious, issue in our congested core.
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