Fatal Logging Railroad Accident at Kamilche
A young worker was killed when a logging train derailed at Simpson’s switch, marking the first fatal accident on local logging roads in a year.
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.
News was telephoned to Shelton Wednesday afternoon of a serious accident to an employee of the Puget Sound and Gray’s Harbor Railroad at Kamilche. Dr. Armstrong was sent for, but the injuries were of too serious a nature to yield to physician's aid. The injured man was named William Yakley, a single man, aged 28 years, and he came from Jefferson County, Mo. It appears that he was rear brakesman on the logging train, which was backing up Simpson’s switch about 12 miles out, when the rear car left the track, throwing him off and running over his body. His right side and back were badly bruised, and his thigh mashed to a pulp; he was badly injured internally, never regaining consciousness. Through congestion, his neck and head were turned to a dark purple. He died at the house of his brother-in-law, Engineer McKinnie, and will be buried at the Masonic Cemetery in Olympia today. This is the first fatal accident on the logging roads for a year.
“This is the first fatal accident of the logging roads for a year.”
The transition of the Shelton area from a raw timber frontier to an industrial one carried heavy costs; today's workplace safety regulations are the direct legacy of the dangers faced by 19th-century loggers and railroad workers.
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