Fatal Runaway Mine Car Claims Life in Roslyn
A broken wire rope sends coal cars plunging down the slope, leaving one miner dead and another seriously injured.
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.
ROSLYN, Sept. 3.—Another fatal accident occurred in the new slope at the Roslyn coal mine today. Joseph Erman was killed and Charles Jones was seriously, if not fatally, injured. At 7 o'clock this morning the force that had been at work during the night boarded the first trip out, as was their custom. As the trip neared the entrance to the slope the speed of the cars was so rapid that the engineer was signaled to stop them. For some reason he failed to respond, and all of a sudden the wire rope hauling the trip parted. Most of the men jumped off the car, and escaped unhurt, as the trip started down the slope at lightning speed. Erman and Jones were thrown from the cars, the former falling beneath them. The body was removed and a coroner's jury impaneled. The inquest resulted in finding the engineer, Carter Nichols, and the rope rider, Edward Prestage, guilty of negligence.
“The speed of the cars was so rapid that the engineer was signaled to stop them... all of a sudden the wire rope hauling the trip parted.”
Mining accidents were a grim reality of early Washington's industrial boom. This incident highlights the dangerous working conditions in the state's coal industry at the turn of the century.
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