The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-24
Auto. Loses a Tire and
Plmges Into Spectators
DRIVERS NARROW ESCAPE
The Three Deaths Yesterday Raises
the Toll of the Speedway to Seven
Lives Lost This Week-A a OF
Grief Hangs Over the City-Two
Others Seriously Injured Yesterday.
(By the Associated Press.)

(By the Associated Press.)
Indianapolis, md, Aug. 21.-Three
more lives were sacrificed today in the
mad speed carnival which has naugu-
rated the great Indianapolis motor
speedway. One mechanician n
two spectators paid the penalty of
their lives to satisfy the. extreme de-
sire for speed. The fatal accident
came when a National car, driven by
Charles Merz in the three hundred
mile race, lost a tire ard crashed
through a fence into a grocr Of spec
tators, spreading death and destruc-
ton in the wake of its wild plunge.
The dead:
m~echanician in the National car.
Ora Jellefee.
An unidentified man.
Besides the three deaths. two seri-
Gus injuries resulted during the. day.
Henry Tapkings, of Indianapolis, was
seriously. injured IN the fatal wreck.
sustaining a compound fracture of his
right arm. a broken nose and several
scalp wounds. Bruce Keene, the
driver of a Marmon car in the same
race, crashed into a post shortly after
the National wreck and was badly
cut about the neck and head.
After the second accident the Off
OtdlS CSlo Sol1 I'll liz III CO
hundred mile race when the leading
cara Jackson with Lee Lynch at
the wheel-had covered 235 miles.
Ralph DePalma in a Fiat. was second,
and Stillman in a harmon was third
The race will be declared no contest
and the great Indianapolis motor
speedway trophy will be raced for
again.
BY a strange freak of fortune Merz
escaped from the terrible wreck with
hardly a scratch. He fell under
she car when it turned a somersault
through the air and down into a gull
ley near the side of the track. He
was in imminent danger of being
burned to death, but through extra
ordinary luck he was able To shut
off the engine and save himself from
a horrible death. KelIum was hurled
out of the car and landed in the gull
ley some distance from the twisted
mass of steel and iron that once had
been a speed machine.
The three deaths today raises the
total of the speedway to seven lives
this week. VIM. A. Bourque and his
-machanician, Harry Holcombe, Of the
Knox racing team, were killed in ar
accident in the $50 mile race Thurs.
day, Cliff Litterell a Stoddard-Daytoo
~mechanician, vas killed by being hill
by a big racing machine while on the
way Out u. tiiC SpSCuW dy va nuns
day Elmer Champion, a six-year-old
boy, was killed by the automobile ct
DR.. Clark E. Day, of this city, while
the latter was on his way to the speed
way for the first days races.
Tonight a pail Of grief hangs ovel
the city and the more reckless auto
mobi1ists drive more carefully through
the streets than hey did earlier in tn
week. The frightful penalty paid FOL
a few broker speed records is greater
than was bargained for when Indian
apolis threw open the gates of its
Greatest Speedway in the World"
The fatal accident today occurred II
the south turn of the immense Ellipse
and near the open stands which con-
tanned nor than 5000 persons. Tbs
thousands in the grand stand did MOI
see the accident, although they knew
that one of the cars had crashed
through the n and off the track
A few minutes after the smash MeE
was brought to the officers stand
and a mighty shout of joy went III
when it was seen he was safe and i
was not for some time that the major
ity of the spectators realized the gray
ity of the situation.