Fatal Leap from a Moving Train
A young, enterprising contractor met a gruesome end while attempting to jump from a moving freight train near Wallula.
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.
While attempting to swing from a fast-moving freight train on the O. R. N. cut-off, Robert Tyson, a prominent young railroad contractor, met an instant death at Simmons station early yesterday morning. Tyson was engaged on a contract with the company and had boarded the train at Page station. Instead of retiring to the caboose, he rode on top of a boxcar and as the siding was reached attempted to swing off the side of the car. In some manner, he was drawn beneath the wheels. The whole lower part of the body was ground to a pulp and the skull was fractured in several places. A track walker found the body twenty minutes after the train had passed. Coroner Smith decided an inquest was not necessary. It was rumored in Wallula that tramps knowing that Tyson always carried a large sum of money with him had pushed him off the car and then robbed the body, but the finding of a wallet containing $700 disproved the rumor. Young Tyson was aged 22 years but by dint of hard work and enterprise had become known as a competent contractor. At the time of his death, he was engaged on the grading and track building contract, employing about 40 men.
“The whole lower part of the body was ground to a pulp and the skull was fractured in several places.”
Railroad construction was the engine of the Pacific Northwest's early economy, but it came at a high physical cost. Today, railroad safety is heavily regulated, but the risks for young contractors or laborers navigating large industrial infrastructure remain a concern in modern logistics.
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