The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-07-13
FROM THE PEOPLE
PRECAUTIONS AGAINST ACCIDENT.

Seattle. July Il. 1907.
To the Editor: We nave all read with
horror the details of the frightful street
car accident in Tacoma on July 4. AMI
ii brings up forcibly the thought that
every protection and precaution should
be employed in this traffic, in order th@t
human life may not be unnecessarily sac
riiced. The people should insist upon
every safeguard possible. In running
street cars up and down great hills and
around curves the ingenuity of man has
not been exhausted IN the application OF
safety appliances.
But | wish to speak of a particularly
dangerous piece of track en- one of the
street railway lines of Seattle. l refer 10
the line that runs to Fremont and Green
lake. This line traverses the west shore
OF Lake Union for a mile and haf or
two miles. running nn what is known as
the boulevard This roadway is support
ed by p.ling. The water beneath and
outside this boulevard is from TWEEN y TO
forty feet deep. Now, 1t is only question
OF time when the city Of Seattle viii
have to mourn the loss of fifty TO ID Of
her good citizens as a result of 4 car
loaded with human beings being piuns-
ed beneath the waters of Lake Union. II
is as certain to happen as that cars run
on that bit of track. Then after IL has
happened and many homes are mata
sorrowful, how sympathetic the surViv-
ors will be, and how they will then de-
clare that precautions should have been
taken long ago. Lock the stable before
the horse is gone. DO not wait until a
great slaughter of our neighbors brings
Us to our senses.
The speed at which the Fremont and
Green lake cars run Upon this stretch of
road is frightful, when one contemporaries
that there is nothing between him and
instant death II he rs a passenger in one
OF these cars that should jump the track
outwardly when going north. There is
nothing 10 prevent the car from plunsag
at once into the lake. Imagine one OF
those long cars packed with a hundred
or more human beings plurging instant
ly into Lake Union. Not soul
could survive. The speed at which
cars run at this point must be TWENTY
five to thirty miles an hour. And what is
There to prevent EAR from going into
the lake IL II once leaves the trace as
suggested? Nothing: absolutely nothing.
There is at most of the curves what -
called a guard rail along the inner rail,
but these may not prevent cars from
jumping the track at all times. AMI the
sharp curves at this point are approach
ed frequently at reckless rate of apeed.
NO udhkff VI NtiH JUMPING iHt - I'm
along this boulevard? They seem IN get
off the track almost anywhere else, and
why not here where the highest speed is
obtained for the purpose of making I'D
time. | have read i'm the Post-Intelli-
gencer of this very date, OF street ear
leaving a perfectly straight track on
North First avenue. and u is ct1imed
that the car was running AT an ordinary
speed. There was a cause for II. no doubi.
as there is a cause for everything. Itnt
may not some cause supervene "a, the
danger point l have mentioned? Most
passengers ride complacently end think 1t
Is jolly to be hurled along this boulevard
at high rate of speed, but il things
continue as they ire this jolity will he
replaced by mourning by many. WhaT
should be done In this case? In thc fist
place, the rate of speed should be brought
down to six or eight miles an hour; and
secondly. there should at least be PLACED
along the outside of the outside rail the
entire length Of this boulevard a heavy
stringer heavily bolted down. Even WITH
these precautions there may be dancer,
hut let us have them and something more
II possible. The city newspapers shold
take this matter up and see that the city
authorities give those who patronize this
line the greatest security possible agains,
accident. The time Ia take precautions
is before a sad accident has occurred.
A. c. SINONTON.
KenwoOd avenue