The Deadly Call: A Streetcar Worker Electrocuted on Duty
A faulty telephone circuit, intended for transit operations, turned fatal when a Seattle conductor went to report off his shift.
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.
James Crozier, a conductor on the Virginia street line of the Seattle Electric company, was instantly killed at 12:10 Wednesday morning and three other car operatives were severely shocked by a crossed circuit in telephone boxes on Cedar street. Crozier was in the act of reporting off at the corner of Cedar street and Denny way when he received the fatal shock. Dr. J. E. Crichton was at Crozier's side a few moments later, but life was extinct. Crozier was 30 years of age, unmarried, and the sole support of a widowed mother. The telephone circuit responsible for the death was a private system used by the Seattle Electric company. Other employees attempting to use the same circuit at different locations were also shocked, though they escaped serious injury. As soon as conductors realized the danger, they warned colleagues to stop using the system until the fault could be cleared.
“The current which went through his body hurled him to the sidewalk with great force, and it is believed that he was dead when he struck.”
This incident highlights the lethal risks associated with the early, often poorly regulated, expansion of municipal electrical grids. Today, transit safety is a matter of strict federal and state oversight, yet the story remains a grim reminder of the human cost paid during the rapid electrification of early 20th-century Washington cities.
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