Tragedy on the Tracks in Spokane Falls
A laborer is found horribly mangled near the depot in what is presumed to be a tragic accident born of intoxication.
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.
On last Saturday morning at Spokane Falls, the body of Michael O'Donnell, a laboring man from Cheney, was found on the railroad track near the depot, horribly mangled. An examination of the track disclosed the fact that he had been dragged the distance of nearly 400 feet before the car had stopped, the wheel bearing on the back of his neck and sliding his head on the rail the greater part of the distance. The left arm was cut almost off in two places. The head was almost severed from the body. The left leg was cut almost off at the ankle. The right ribs and sternum were crushed entirely. Both of the parietal bones and both temporal bones were crushed between the wheels and rails in a manner indescribable. The body was crushed almost out of the shape of a man. It is supposed that while intoxicated he fell under the cars and met his death.
“The body was crushed almost out of the shape of a man.”
Railroad-related fatalities were a grim, recurring fixture of the rapid industrial expansion of the American West. Today, modern safety standards and fencing have largely relegated these types of horrific accidents to the history books, though the tension between urban growth and rail safety remains a part of the civic conversation in Washington.
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