Tragic Crossing at Sumner
An elderly woman is struck and killed by a passenger train just days before her planned relocation to Tacoma.
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.
Uttering a despairing cry to her husband, who stood but a few feet from her, Mrs. Carrie Kribs, 65 years old, was run down by a passenger train late Saturday afternoon, one mile from Sumner, and instantly killed. When the train was stopped, her lifeless body was found in a ditch beside the track. Mrs. Kribs was the wife of David Kribs and had lived for some time on a leased ranch near Sumner. A few days ago, the old couple had made arrangements to move to Tacoma and were on a journey to complete preparations for moving when Mrs. Kribs met her tragic death.
“Uttering a despairing cry to her husband, who stood but a few feet from her, Mrs. Carrie Kribs... was run down by a passenger train.”
Railroad safety in the Pacific Northwest was a constant peril as communities expanded across active tracks. This accident highlights the vulnerability of residents living on the rural fringes of the growing Tacoma area in 1909.
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