Horrific Industrial Accident Near 15th and Dock Street
A man is struck by a Northern Pacific engine and suffers a severed leg while watching a separate engine approach.
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.
While standing on the Northern Pacific railroad tracks, within a few feet of the crossing at Fifteenth and Dock streets, about 1:30 o'clock this afternoon, a man whose name has not yet been ascertained was struck by Northern Pacific engine No. 25, and his left leg was completely crushed and severed from the body, leaving a quivering, bleeding stump. The man was watching another engine which was approaching. The police station was notified and the man immediately removed to St. Joseph's hospital and taken to the operating room, where it will be necessary to amputate what remains of the mutilated limb. The patient was unconscious from the injury and did not regain consciousness until placed under the influence of drugs at the hospital.
“Leaving a quivering, bleeding stump.”
This accident highlights the extreme danger of rail operations in pre-safety-regulation Tacoma, where heavy machinery frequently intersected with pedestrian paths on the waterfront. The intersection at 15th and Dock remains a critical junction for the city's industry and logistics.
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