wnp27.6076

San Jose near Ocean

June 8, 1946

14-Line Streetcar #1583 lost control of brakes at San Jose and Shakespeare and crashed at San Jose and Ocean. [Runaway streetcar comes to stop at bottom of San Francisco Hill only after smashing through steel street post, snapping off wooden telephone pole, knifing front porch from a home and smashing two automobiles. Fast-thinking motorman, John H. Paterson, San Francisco, as he discovered the broken brake mechanism, shouted to a passing motorist to race ahead and clear the street, and to the car's only other occupant, a conductorette, to lie down on the floor. She was uninjured, he, only slightly.