The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1909-07-08
Big Touring Car Caught on Tracks
at Ashland Ave. and Reduced
to KindIing Wood
REFUSE TO GIVE THEIR NAMES.
Two Men and Two Women Were in the
Car When the Engine event
Dead" in the Very Center
of Railway Tracks

One of the most spectacular acct
dents to an automobile ever known in
Kenosha took place just after nine
O'Clock Friday evening at the Ashland
avenue crossing of the Chicago and
Northwestern Railway Company when
tue north bound train running at a
high rate of speed struck Thomas
Forty car in the very center of the
tracks and reduced it to laindling wood.
There were four people in the car and
they had a remarkably narrow escape
from death
Tho members Of the party refused to
give their names either to the repre-
sentatives Of the railway company or
to members Of the crowd which gath
cred after the accident and they
boarded the train which hit the car and
came into Kenosha and later went to
Chicago. 1t is said that the car is
owned by a Wabash avenue saloon
keeper in Chicago. There were two
men and two women in the car and
they had been making their way from
Waukegan to Kenosha during the
heavy rain storm.
The owner OF the car was driving it
and as he approached the crossing the
train was coming from the south half
q mile away, ITe attempted to cross
the tracks but when the car got in the
very middle of the tracks the engine
s'went dead" The members of the
party realized their peril and leaped
from the car AT that time the train
was only o few rods away from the
stranded car, bat the two men made d
feeble effort to push the automobil6 Bff
the tracks risking their lives in IAN
effort to save 1T. 1t was broken to
lsindling wood and the debris thrown
high into the air. A portion of the
automobile was carried as far north as
Evergreen street. A great crowd OF
people was attracted by the noise of
the collision, The train struck the
automobile with such force shat .por-
tion of the car was caught on the en-
CINE of the train and it took nearly
forty4fve minutes to remove it. The
train pulled into Kenosha nearly an
hour late. No effort was made to pick
up the debris Of the car and people who
hunted along the tracks got rich prizes
later in the evening.
The escape of the members of the
party was a miraculous one as not one
of them was injured in any manner.
The flying debris when the train hit
the automobile were scattered all about
The four people, but none Of them was
struck. The railway officials made an
effort to discover the identity of the
people in the car, but they refused to
give their names. 1t is probable that
the names will be made public later
when an attempt is made to secure the
payment of damages for the destruc-
tion of the car.
This morning an effort was made to
find out the identity of the owner of
the car and it was discovered that the
man's first name was "Walter" and
that he was the owner of a saloon on
Wabash avenue in Chicago. His com
panion bore the name Of "Lary." The
two men claimed that there were no
women in the automobile at the time
of the accident but the stories of people
who were at the scene of the accident
a few minutes later all agree that the
two men and a like number of women
boarded the train when it stopped after
the automobile had been hit. The car
carried number illinois 1862