Runaway Truck Terrifies Downtown Seattle
A team of horses pulling a heavy truck bolted onto the sidewalk, narrowly missing a mother and her child in a crowded downtown street.
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.
One of McDaniel Bros. truck teams took fright yesterday morning, and came tearing down Front street, followed by the heavy truck. The team took to the sidewalk in front of L. P. Smith & Son's jewelry store, which they kept until they collided with a telephone pole in front of Ward & Campbell's hardware establishment. As they passed along the sidewalk, a little child which was being wheeled along by its mother had a very narrow escape. The great truck, as it dashed along, did not miss the baby carriage more than two or three inches. The cedar post was split from the ground to the top by the shock. Nothing serious resulted from the runaway.
“The great truck, as it dashed along, did not miss the baby carriage more than two or three inches and the hundreds of spectators stood breathless for an instant.”
A vivid snapshot of the chaos of 19th-century street traffic. Front Street, now First Avenue, remains a central artery where urban safety concerns and the movement of heavy goods have evolved from horse-drawn teams to modern transit.
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