A High-Speed Crash Into a Saloon
After a harrowing collision on Puyallup Avenue, a local couple sues their driver for reckless speed.
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.
Claiming they were seriously injured in an automobile accident on Puyallup Avenue on March 23, 1909, when the machine in which they were riding crashed into a car approaching from another direction and finally came to a stop after it had smashed the entire front windows of a saloon, W. H. Hollinshead and his wife yesterday commenced a suit for $5,200 damages against Kiven McConnell. McConnell was driving the car at the time of the accident, and the plaintiffs state that he was exceeding the speed limit and driving recklessly.
“The machine... finally came to a stop after it had smashed the entire front windows of a saloon.”
Puyallup Avenue remains a major industrial corridor today, but the era of 'horseless carriage' reckless driving suits reminds us that the chaos of automotive integration into city streets has been a civic struggle in Tacoma for over a century.
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