A Miner’s Life Crushed at Newcastle
A young worker is critically injured after being caught between an engine and a coal car at the Newcastle mine.
Peter Thompson, an employee of the Newcastle mines, was taken to Providence hospital last night to be operated upon for a crushed leg. Dr. Rufus Smith and Dr. George H. T. Sparling had the case in charge, and are extremely doubtful if the limb can be saved. Thompson is a young man, strong and healthy, and has been working 'on top' at the Newcastle mine. Yesterday afternoon he was engaged in handling coal from the bunkers to the boilers, and accidentally got his right leg caught just above the ankle between the footboard of the engine and a coal car. The train was stopped as quickly as possible, but while in time to save Thompson's life, it was not in time to save his leg from being crushed in a terrible manner. Dr. Sparling, the company physician, took charge of the injured man and brought him to the city on the first train and took him to Providence hospital. Thompson is married and has one child.
“The train was stopped as quickly as possible, but while in time to save Thompson's life, it was not in time to save his leg from being crushed in a terrible manner.”
The Newcastle coal mines were once the engine of Seattle's industrial growth, but they were also sites of frequent, brutal industrial accidents. Today, the site of the old Newcastle mines is a quiet residential suburb and park, with little trace of the dangerous labor that once defined the landscape.
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