Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1908 — DEATH WAS THE TIMER [ARTICLE]

DEATH WAS THE TIMER

Brought an Auto and a Railway Express Train Together on 1 a Crossing. wo riders Aii nr jnmn Another May follow Them and a (Fourth Is Badly Hurt - - * Two of the Victims Are Young Society Women Graphic Story of How a Fatal Collision Occurred. Glen Head, L. 1., July 28.—Two per* sons are dead and two seriously injured as the result of a collision here between an automobile and the “Millionaire’s Express” of the Long Island railroad, a train that carries many wealthy New Yorkers to their summer homes on Long Island. Miss Leigh Townsend, a New York girl of social prominence, who was a passenger in the automobile, died a few minutes after the accident, while Chas, Smith, the chauffeur, died while enroute to the hospital. The other occupants of the automobile were Miss Beatrice Eddy, twenty-two yearq old, of Brooklyn, and Lloyd Robinson, twenty, son of Chas. Robinson, a New York banker and the owner of the automobile. Death Waited on the Hill. , The accident occurred at the Glen Wood road crossing. Lloyd Robinson •was taking the automobile party to his father’s summer home at Sea Cliff when the accident occurred. There is a long steel hill on the Glen Wood road leading to the railroad crossing. Just before the tracks are reached the road levels out and there is a flat Stretch of one hundred feet or so. Smith, the chauffeur, had the automobile running at its highest speed to climb the hill, and when the top was reached the machine darter forward at great speed on the level roadway. , Seemed Timed to the Seooud. The automobile and the train s;>ed toward the crossing as though they had been timed to the second to meet at the junction point There was not time for Smith to stop themotorcar. and the engineer was powerless to check the onrushing train. The locomotive struck the automobile fairly in the middle with such terrific force that the machine buckled around the nose of the engine and clung there. The passengers of the automobile were hurled in all directions. Miss Eddy narrowly eccaped rolling under the ■wheels of the train. She was cut about the hands and face and received probably fatal internal injuries, Lloyd Robinson fell on soft soil, but was seriously hurt