Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1900-07-07
CAR ACCIDENT IN TACOMA.
SIXTY PERSONS WERE KILLED.
Eighteen Injured in an Accident
Electric Car Went over Grade
Down Sexty Feet Into the Deep
GuIch.

Tacoma, Wash July 5.-A crowded elec
trio car from South Tacoma crashed
through a bridge at Seventeenth and L
streets at $3.50 Wednesday morning
Twenty were killed and thirty injured and
horribly nlangled. People were coming
into the city to witness the celebration
The most appalling accident ever known
in the history of Tacoma occurred yester-
day, when at $3.50 an Edison car, loaded
with eXcursionists coming to see the pl
rade, was dashed down 10 feet over Tie
bridge at the gulch where the track runs
from d street, burying the passen-
gers, among whom were many women dnd
children, under the wreck Of the car. The
car turned completely over and mangled
the unfortunate victims into UNI eco9nlz-
able shapes as the debris crashed on down
the steep side of the gulch.
Where the car went off there Is a sharp
curve, at the foot of steep grace. just
how the accident occurred wall never be
known, but as the car struck the curve,
instead of following the rails, 1t Whirled
completely over and pitched from the
bridge, striking on its top, the heavy
trucks and body of the car crashing the
frail upper works to splinters and smash
ing down upon the mass of men, women
and children, with which the car was
loaded.
In the gulch confused mass If wrecked
Ibid II 1
mangled people made the heart Of the be
holder sink. Telephone messages for doc
tors from the St. Joseph hospital to the
central station brought quick response.
Policemen and civilians were sent in haste
and every physician in the city was mott
fed. Telephone wires were kept hot VITA
repeated calls and not an effort was lost
to get every available doctor in town.
As the bodies of the victims were
brought up out of the gulch, some of
them mangled out of all recognition,
heartrending scenes were everywhere
seen as mothers found their dead and
mangled children. Others were wildly
rushing around looking for friends that
had been on the fatal car, and everywhere
scattered about on the ground at the edge
of the gulch were bodies of men, women
and children, some of them std alive and
some just gasping their last breath, often
with nobody to give them the least atten-
ton, so busy was the crowd in the work
of rescue or in hunting for friends who
might be in the wreck.
Mangled remains of the victims We're
brought up out of the gulcn in blankets
and gunnysacks, and those not killed
were borne to the waiting cars to carry
them to their homes or to the hospitals,
the sight making the stoutesc hear sink.
The fire department, as well as the po-
lice patrol, was early on the ground to
assist in the work of rescue
twenty-five dead were counted around
on the ground or on the bridge. where
they were half covered up with gunny-
sacks, or lay stark and mangled in pools
of blood under the feet of the multitude,
who passed them with a shudder to TOOL,
at the wreck far down the bank of the
gulch. More than as many more were
carried away in carriages, ambulances AMI
the patrol wagon and in the cars which
the railway company sent TO the scene to
carry away the wounded
Thirty-Five Were Killed.
BY corrected count 30 men, women and
children were killed in the accident and
IS were injured. OF these latter fully one
half will die.
The gulch is over 100 feet deep, but
where the car first struck the steep bank
was about 80 or 90 feet down the side oi
the gulch Here the car first crashed inil
the bank and smashed along down the
side of the gulch, grinding the victims
under its wreck.
The Dead.
Following are the names of the dead
as far as it was possible to ascertain
them:
The dead-Three children of Mrs. Lv
man Lee Of Medford, Ore; Carl Mosser
aged years, and Herman Mosser, ageC
4, both children of Mrs. Herman Mosser
of South Tacoma; William Nielsen o
Spanaway Lake; Mrs. Emma Femming
Mrs. George Flemming, three daughters
and a SON. Robert Steele, John Nielsen
Mr.. Mcmillan, Miss Kellogg, George Ben