A Young Brakeman Killed on the Tracks
A 21-year-old Northern Pacific employee loses his life in a tragic coupling accident near Centralia.
A sad accident occurred today, by which James McCarthy, a Northern Pacific brakeman on the way freight, lost his life. The unfortunate man was engaged in making a coupling, but for some reason could not pull the pin. The train was pulled up for a short distance when he stepped between the bumpers and was engaged in hammering the pin, trying to loosen it, when the train backed, catching him in the abdomen and crushing his intestines. McCarthy died at about 4 o'clock. He was a young man, aged 21 years, and was married last Christmas.
“When informed that there was no hope of his living McCarthy asked the doctors to try and keep him alive till his wife could reach him.”
Railroad work was the defining industrial hazard of the late 19th century. This account reflects the inherent dangers faced by laborers and the sudden, devastating nature of industrial fatalities that were frequently reported in local papers of the time.
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