A Chaotic Runaway Team on Commercial Street
A frightened lumber team sparks a chain-reaction collision, leaving one man nearly killed and his buggy destroyed.
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.
A rather destructive runaway took place on Commercial street yesterday afternoon. H. A. Fredericks' lumber team became frightened at the passing locomotive and ran up Commercial street, crashing into James Craig's hack team, which dashed across the street and jumped upon Jos. F. McNaught's buggy, smashing it into a thousand pieces. Mr. McNaught was in the buggy at the time and barely escaped with his life. Both of Craig's horses were more or less injured, and the buggy team was somewhat smashed up. Mr. McNaught's injuries were but slight, and the only wonder is that he was not killed.
“James Craig's hack team, which dashed across the street and jumped upon Jos. F. McNaught's buggy, smashing it into a thousand pieces.”
Before the automobile, runaways were a common and dangerous facet of city life, especially when steam trains shared the streets with horse-drawn carriages. Today's traffic safety concerns share this history of navigating high-energy transportation through congested urban corridors.
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