A Warning Ignored, a Blast That Broke Four Ribs
A Great Northern worker was badly injured near Newport when a heavy blast threw a rock into his chest, despite warnings to move.
William Hunt, employed as a flunkey at the camp of the Great Northern just east of the city, was badly injured on Saturday evening. Hunt was sitting on a box near where workmen were blasting on the bluffs. He had been warned that his position was dangerous while the firing was going on, but paid no attention to the warnings. A particularly heavy blast was discharged and a good-sized rock struck Hunt in the chest. Four ribs were fractured and he was otherwise seriously injured. He was taken to a Spokane hospital on the dinkey on Monday morning.
“He had been warned that his position was dangerous while the firing was going on, but paid no attention to the warnings.”
The accident is a small window into the brutal math of railroad construction, where warnings and safety were often secondary to speed. Modern Newport still lives with the infrastructure those crews built, but workplace safety is now enforced rather than left to a foreman's warning.
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