Scene of Accident. View of Pacific Avenue near South 19th Street taken on August 31, 1940 for United Pacific Insurance Company. Union Station on right, American Plumbing and Steam Supply, Shaub - Ellison Company and Garretson - Woodruff - Pratt Building on left. Wreckage of the fatal automobile-truck accident had already been cleared away by the time of this photograph. A Portland-Seattle Auto Freight truck had collided head-on with a Packard coupe the late evening of August 30th at South 19th & Pacific Ave. This caused the 11th traffic fatality of the year when Tacoma boilermaker Virgil Jones, along with his three passengers, was thrown from his vehicle. Although his passengers, and the truck's occupants, were injured, they did survived. A coroner's jury the following week found the accident to be "unavoidable" and no charges were filed against either driver. (T.Times 8-31-1940, p. 1+, article-only; T.Times 9-7-1940, p. 8-article only on coroner's inquest)
Traffic accidents--Tacoma--1940-1950; Commercial streets--Tacoma--1940-1950; Union Station (Tacoma); American Plumbing & Steam Supply Co. (Tacoma); Shaub-Ellison Co. (Tacoma); Garretson-Woodruff-Pratt Building (Tacoma); Street railroad tracks--Tacoma;