Streetcar Smash-up on the Spur
A motorman is seriously injured in a collision at a local woodyard after a switch fails to be reset properly.
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.
E. A. Warner, a motorman on South Tacoma car No. 75, had his leg broken in a collision with a flat car last night at the Harrison woodyard. The switch had been thrown to let a freight motor in on the woodyard spur, and before it was returned to the main track, car No. 75 entered the spur, resulting in a crash. Although the vestibule was demolished, no one else was hurt. Warner was a new employee and was reportedly working his final shift before quitting when the accident occurred.
“Warner was a new man. He had decided that he didn't like street car work and was making his last run when the accident occurred.”
This incident highlights the physical danger and rapid turnover of early 20th-century transit work, a sharp contrast to the standardized safety protocols of modern public transportation systems.
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