Auto Fire Engine Wrecked in Collision
Rushing to answer a fire alarm. Engineer Fred Wagner, of the Alameda, Cal., fire department, drove the $8,000 auto fire engine squarely against the motor car of a horseshoe electric train. The auto engine, weighing five tons, was lifted bodily by the force of the impact, thrown 20 feet backward and tipped over on its side in the gutter. The shock threw Wagner across the street and sidewalk onto a lawn at the corner residence. It was at first believed that Wagner was fatally hurt, but after he was taken to an Alameda Sana toriitm it was found that he was not seriously injured, He is bruised from head to foot, but has no broken bones. The auto engine had been slowed down bv the engineer to 15 to 20 miles an hour, in order to avoid a heavy wagon ahead. Willow street is extremely narrow and business structures are built flush with the property lines, preventing a view of the track on either side. Wagner attempted to turn the vehicle between the track and the curb when he saw that a collision was imminent, but the heavy 80-horsepower machine could not make a sharp enough turn and struck the forward car of the train in the center. There is scarcely a whole working part of the engine left. The machine was purchased in 1900 for $8,000. and was the first auto fire engine in commission on the Pacific coast.
Rushing to answer a fire alarm. Engineer Fred Wagner, of the Alameda, Cal., fire department, drove the $8,000 auto fire engine squarely against the motor car of a horseshoe electric train. The auto engine, weighing five tons, was lifted bodily by the force of the impact, thrown 20 feet backward and tipped over on its side in the gutter. The shock threw Wagner across the street and sidewalk onto a lawn at the corner residence. It was at first believed that Wagner was fatally hurt, but after he was taken to an Alameda Sana toriitm it was found that he was not seriously injured, He is bruised from head to foot, but has no broken bones. The auto engine had been slowed down bv the engineer to 15 to 20 miles an hour, in order to avoid a heavy wagon ahead. Willow street is extremely narrow and business structures are built flush with the property lines, preventing a view of the track on either side. Wagner attempted to turn the vehicle between the track and the curb when he saw that a collision was imminent, but the heavy 80-horsepower machine could not make a sharp enough turn and struck the forward car of the train in the center. There is scarcely a whole working part of the engine left. The machine was purchased in 1900 for $8,000. and was the first auto fire engine in commission on the Pacific coast.
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