AUTO DROPS 40 FEET; TWO DEAD


Auto drops 40 feet; two dead

(Death of John C. H. Care and Thomas McClintock)
Donated by Patricia Hardenstine


Harrisburg Car Plunges Off Bridge at Greencastle Sunday

 Two others badly hurt

Party Was On Way to Blue Ridge Summit, Injured Rushed to Chambersburg Hospital.

 

            Crashing through the guard railing at a sharp curve at the end of the concrete bridge which spans the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks at the northern end of Greencastle, 11 miles north of Hagerstown, a touring car filled with Harrisburg people went over the embankment Sunday morning, turning turtle as it struck the railroad tracks, 40 feet beneath.  Two of the occupants of the care dead, two more are in a critical condition in the Chambersburg Hospital, while two others were less seriously injured.

            The dead are John C. H. Care and Thomas McClintock, both of Harrisburg.  Those injured are Mrs. Thomas McClintock and Mrs. Stephen Rowley, both in a critical condition in the Chambersburg Hospital.  The less seriously injured are Stephen Rowley, driver of the car, suffering from shock, and Rosanna Care, little daughter of John C. H. Care, suffering from shock and lacerations about the head.

            The automobile party was on its way to Blue Ridge Summit to spend the day.  The machine was running at a rapid clip when the driver attempted to make the turn at the bridge.  As it left the pike it plunged through the heavy guardrails, knocked down two telephone cables, and, reeling up a steep embankment, tore through a field rock and then went over the embankment.

            The injured were rushed to the hospital at Chambersburg.  Both Care and McClintock died as they were being taken to the hospital and injuries sustained by Mrs. McClintock and Mrs. Rowley were of such a nature that little hope was entertained for their recovery.

            The machine was almost a complete wreck.

Source:  The Gettysburg Times – Gettysburg, PA., Monday, October 25th, 1920 – Front Page

 


Third victim dead

 Mrs. Stephen Rowley, of Harrisburg, Died in Hospital

            The third death has occurred as a result of the automobile crash near Greencastle Sunday when the car driven by Stephen Rowley, of Harrisburg, plunged through the guard railing of a concrete bridge and down on the Pennsylvania railroad tracks.  Mrs. Stephen Rowley was the third member of the party to die.

            Mrs. Thomas McClintock, of Harrisburg, whose husband was killed in the accident, is not expected to live.

 

Source:  The Gettysburg Times – Gettysburg, PA., Tuesday, October 26th, 1920 – Front Page

 


Fourth victim dead

 Mrs. McClintock, of Harrisburg, Injured at Greencastle Plunges Off Bridge at Greencastle Sunday

 

Mrs. Aldemia McClintock died at the Chambersburg Hospital Thursday evening at 6 o’clock, the fourth victim of the automobile accident on the outskirts of Greencastle last Sunday forenoon in which her husband, Thomas J. McClintock, a Pennsylvania railroad engineer; Mrs. Stephen M. Rowley and John C. H. Care, all of Harrisburg, lost their lives.

            Mrs. McClintock passed away surrounded by relatives who had been summoned because of her critical condition.  She died without knowing her husband had also been fatally hurt.  The body was taken to Harrisburg after a jury impaneled by Coroner J. H. Kinter and his jury heard a witness who identified the woman.

            When Mrs. McClintock was taken to the hospital she was unconscious and continued in that condition the greater part of the time prior to her death.  Several times she had moment of consciousness, but surgeons feared to tell her of her husband’s fate lest it hasten her own death.

            The coroner’s jury will meet on Monday to inquire further into the cause of the accident and reach a verdict.

Source:  The Gettysburg Times – Gettysburg, PA., Saturday, October 30th, 1920 – Front Page


locked gear caused crash

 Driver of Car in Fatal Accident Testifies Before Coroner

THREE CRUSHED TO DEATH

 Rowley Says Car Was Traveling Twenty Miles An Hour.  Only One Eye Witness

 

            Inquiring into the cause of the accident in which three Harrisburg people met death in an automobile fatality on the outskirts of Greencastle, on Sunday forenoon, the Franklin county jury, at Chambersburg, has returned a verdict that the accident happened when Stephen M. Rowley temporarily lost control of the car as it was descending the steep hill at the southern foot of the overhead structure.  Rowley told the jury the car was not going more than twenty miles an hour, and that the steering gear locked when he tried to turn the care away from the embankment.  He had been running the care since April and was of the opinion, he told the jurors, that he was a competent driver.  Physicians gave testimony that the three victims had been crushed about their chests and that internal injuries had caused death, their lungs having been punctured by fractured ribs.

Coroner’s Jury

            The jury that Coroner John H. Kinter impaneled consisted of prominent citizens of Chambersburg, as follows: Stuart L.. Brown, business manager of Public Opinion; Edward Henderson, merchant; David L. Greenwalt, druggist; M. R. Rhoads, architect and builder; James C. Clark, freight agent of the Pennsylvania System at Chambersburg, and John B. Diehl, former clerk of the Franklin county courts.

(Continued on Third Page)

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LOCKED gear caused crash

(Continued from First Pgae*)

 over the embankment.  He told the jury he had just crossed and was several hundred feet from the bridge when his attention was attracted by screams of women.  He looked around in time to see the auto falling down the embankment, with all four wheels in the air.  Then the care seemed to turn over on its side, roll completely over and land beside the railroad tracks top down.

            Calling to a couple of girls nearby to run for help, Kauffman ran to the scene of the accident and arrived there as the driver was rising to his feet in a stunned condition.  The Care child was outside the wreckage and Kauffman’s first act was to carry her some distance away.  The child was unhurt, except for a cut near one eye.  She inquired of Mr. Kauffman: “I wonder if we can get a car back to Harrisburg?”

            The remaining four of the party were then unconscious and under the wrecked car.  A young man, who came along in a bicycle, was dispatched for physicians, and with the aid of a driver of another automobile, which had just come up, the driver of the ill-fated car and Kauffman began getting the two men and two women out of the wreckage.  McClintock was pinned down by the car, the back of the front seat resting across his back.  At first it was thought he was dead but after releasing him, it was found he was still breathing.  Examination showed that his chest was crushed in.

 *Page spelled incorrectly per article.

Source:  The Gettysburg Times – Gettysburg, PA., Wednesday, October 27th, 1920 – Front & Third Page


Driver speaks of fatal plunge

 Crash at Greencastle Recalled When Jury Hears Stephen M. Rowley

THREE CRUSHED TO DEATH

 The Coroner’s jury impaneled October 28, to inquire into the death of Mrs. Thomas J. McClintock, of Harrisburg, one of the victims of the fatal auto accident at the overhead railroad bridge at Greencastle on October 24, in which three other people lost their lives, met last week in the Franklin County Court House, and after hearing testimony of Stephen M. Rowley, of Harrisburg, driver of the death auto, returned a verdict the Mrs. McClintock met her death as the result of the accident, caused by the driver of the auto temporarily losing control of the car.  The deliberations of the jury had been held upending receipt of additional information in the case.

Rowley, still suffering from an injured arm and hand, result of the accident, testified that as he was making the turn at the bridge the steering gear of the auto apparently locked and the car dashed over the precipitous embankment to the tracks of the P. R. R.  He said that he had never made it a habit of carrying on conversation while driving an auto and that he had never been arrested for reckless running or on a speeding charge.  He stated that at the time of the accident the auto was going about 20 miles an hour.

Source:  The Gettysburg Times – Gettysburg, PA., Monday, December 30th, 1920 – Third Page


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