Commuter Struck by Streetcar in South Tacoma
A Spanaway man was sent flying into a snowdrift after attempting to flag down an outbound trolley.
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.
Stepping too close to the car track in order to hail an outbound South Tacoma car at South 36th and M streets last evening, Ole Berger, a resident of Spanaway, was struck by the car and hurled 20 feet into a snowdrift, from which he was taken in an unconscious condition. Berger was taken to the Tudhope pharmacy and attended by Dr. Flynn. A fractured arm and several body bruises were the total of his injuries. He was removed to his home in Spanaway.
“Stepping too close to the car track in order to hail an outbound South Tacoma car... he was struck by the car and hurled 20 feet into a snowdrift.”
Streetcar accidents were a frequent hazard of early 20th-century urban life in Tacoma, as commuters navigated tracks that shared space with pedestrians and horse-drawn traffic. Today, modern light rail and improved transit safety infrastructure have replaced these risky interactions, but the tension between transit schedules and pedestrian safety remains a constant civic conversation.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.