Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1920 — TWO NEAR FATAL ACCIDENTS [ARTICLE]

TWO NEAR FATAL ACCIDENTS

At Remington Monday—Switch Engin* Strikes Truckload of Men. —— i Remington was tEe scene of a couple of automobile accidents Monday, one of which was Indeed a miraculous escape from death for several men on an auto truck who had been out to a small fire at William Ott’s, a short distance west of’-Em-ington. This accident occurred about the noon hour. A fire alarm from Mr. Ott’s had taken about every man in the town there who had an auto or could climb on someone else’s car. The Are had been extinguished with but small damage to the roof of the Ott house and “Fat” Griffith was returning to town with his Ford truck with about a dozen or more men standing up on the platform. At the Ohio street crossing of the Panhandle a freight engine was switching cars about and was not observed by the driver of the truck, Mr. Lambert, and a young man named Julian, who was in the cab seat with him, and they were almost upon the tracks before the engine was seen bearing down upon them from the west. Lambert attempted to t urn the .truck to the east and thus avoid being struck, but he was too close to the tracks, and the engine struck the truck and completely demolished it, leaving nothing but a mass of scrap iron. The men standing on the platform of the truck piled off in every direction when the truck was first struck and they saw the inevitable, and everyone escaped injury. Griffith and Julian were not able to get out of the truck cab and were carried east as far as the depot, perhaps 150 to 200 feet, before the engineer of the freight engine could bring the locomotive to a. stop. They, too, escaped injury, and when the horrified crowd of people who had just returned from the fire and had seen the engine strike and demolish the truck, rushed to the scene, expecting to find a half dozen dead and maimed victims, they found only a badly scared bunch of men and a pile of scrap' iron and kindling, all that remained of what had but a few moments before been a perfectly good "Lizzie” truck. The escape of the occupants without a scratch was most miraculous, and would probably not happen again in a thousand times. Another accident, earlier in the day, which also resulted without injury to the occupants of either machine, occurred at the corner of the Presbyterian church, when Ed Frey’s Ford struck a Ford sedan broadside and turned it over on Its side. Bo'th cars were slightly damaged, but were able to be driven to the auto hospital for repair under their own power.