Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1919 — BUMPED INTO BUGGY IN FOG [ARTICLE]

BUMPED INTO BUGGY IN FOG

Owner of Rig Refuses to Accept Reasonable Damages. While returning from the Lafayette fair one foggy morning last week and driving Hugh Kirk’s Marmon roadster. Bob Smith and Paul Norgor bumped into a buggy about 5 miles south of Renssfelaer, badly demolishing the vehicle and breaking the windshield and bending the fender on the car. The young man in the buggy, whose name they say they have not yet learned, was asleep, the boys say, and although they had the head-lights and spot-light burning, he did not see-or hear them and it was so foggy that they did not see him' until they were upon him. The boys say that they were running very slowly because of the fog, and did not average 15 miles an.' hour between Lafayette and Rensselaer, otherwise it is probable that both the young man in the buggy and his horse would have been killed. As It was both escaped injury.

The buggy did not belong to the young man, but was owned by a farmer south of town, and he came in Saturday and wanted the boys to pay for same. This they offered to do, they say, offering to pay him 'what the buggy cost him two years ago. He refused to accept that amount, however, and wanted .S2O more than he had paid for the buggy in 1917. The boys refused tP pay more than they had offered and the man left, threatening to sue them for the amount he wanted.