It’s hard to resist sledding down a snowy hill. These young girls got a bit more of a thrill than they expected though.
From the Alton Evening Telegraph, Alton, Illinois, dated 25 January, 1886:
COASTING ACCIDENTS.
The rage for coasting on the streets, incited by the icy conditions of the thoroughfares, has been the cause of a few accidents, not as many, however, as might have been expected from the furious rate at which the sleds shoot down the hills. Yesterday evening a sled containing five or six young ladies collided with Dr. Haskell’s carriage at the Five Points on Belle street, and two of the coasters, Misses Mollie Thornton and Biddie O’Leary, were injured. Miss Thornton so seriously, by a cut in the forehead, that she was confined in bed today. Miss O’Leary escaped with a few bruises, the rest of the coasters were unhurt. Dr. Haskell attended to the injured ones. Finis Hindle, who was driving in the carriage, took every precautions against an accident and was told that the coast was clear just as he started across the slide. The coasters came down the hill so suddenly that it was impossible to get out of the way and the sled collided with the fore wheels of the carriage, the occupants being precipitated under the horses’ heels in such a position that it was almost a miracle that the accident was not more serious. Had not the horses refrained from kicking there is no telling the terrible results that might have ensued.
Did you ever go “coasting” when you were a kid? I lived in the woods, on a dirt road, so there wasn’t really a fear of running into any traffic. I was scared of running into a tree though!
