The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-30
AUTO OVER BLUFF
Geo. Scott, of Kansas City, KILL
ed This Morning.
Four Other Members of Party
Are Bruised.
ONE SERIOUSLY HURT.
Bank Caves Under a Great
Smith Car.
Automobile Turns Turtle Pin
ming Two Underneath.
DIES AFTER RESCUE.
Scott Did Not Seem to Be Badly
Injured.
Road Has Long Been Menace to
Public Safety.
Automobile Turns Turtle Pin
ming Two Underneath.
DIES AFTER RESCUE.
Scott Did Not Seem to Be Badly
Injured.
Road Has Long Been Menace to
Public Safety.
Dead.

Public Safety.
George Scott, manager grill room,
Baltimore hotel, Kansas City, MO.
Injured.
Walter L. Smith. Kansas City, leg
badly wrenched. bruised
c. J. Anderson, kansas CITY, leg
wrenched and bruises.
C. l. Wilson, Manhattan, bruised.
Pinned beneath a heavy Great
Smith car when it turned turtle and
fell 10 feet down an enbankment near
Calhoun Bluffs at O'Clock this morn
ing, George Scott of Kansas City, NO.
was injured so that he died within 10
minutes. Three other members of the
party were injured, only one OF them'
Clyde Wilson, seriously.
The accident in which Scott met
death and which is the first fatal auto
accident near Topeka occurred when
the car went down the embankment
caused by the sliding of the hill toward
the Union Pacific tracks. Together with
the injured men named above, Scott
was riding to Kansas City. John Nc
Cluan. an expert driver in the employ
of the Smith company, was driving.
Four miles east of Topeka, on the
third bluff along the Union Pacific
track McCIuan saw what he thought
was a hol in the road. Turning his
machine to the right, he sought to
miss it. He did so, but the machine
ran off the embankment caused by
cave-in, overturned and caught Scott
and Walter L. Smith beneath. Nc
Cluan felt the car slide and jumped,
escaping without injury. Wilson was
thrown out and bruised. Anderson
jumped and came down on top of the
overturned machine.
As quickly as the men who escaped
being pinned under the car realized
what had happened they began the
work of rescuing their two compan-
ions. Scott was the first taken out and
he did not seem to be injured. Walter
Smith, whose leg was held under the
tonneau. was then removed 1t was
believed then that he was the most
seriously injured of the five.
Scott Appeared to Be Unhurt.
For a few minutes Scott was appar-
emily all right. He talked with other
members of the party of the accident.
Suddenly, he said:
My God, I'm sick at my stomach
He sat down and Walter Smith, who
has a knowledge of medicine. felt his
pulse There was none. Scott had died
in the brief interval that elapsed be-
tween the time he called out that he
was sick and the time Smith reached
him. There is not a bruise on his
body, according to the statement of
the undertaken
Anderson went to the Homer farm
house, about half a mile west of the
scene of the accident, and notified Cor
oner H. H. Keith by telephone. Henry
Topeka, but DR.. Keith soon arrived
and the dead and injured men re-
turned with him in the physicians
auto.
Car Running Slowly.
At the time of the accident, accord
ing to the members of the party the
car was running only II or Is miles
an hour. The fact that the car turned
over and stopped Immediately at the
bottom of the embankment indicates
that it was not running rapidly. The
car is not damaged beyond the bend
ing of the engine hood and the front
tonneau- The car had just taken a
steep hill and indications are that
speed of the machine had no connec-
ton with the cause of the accident.
The driver of the machine, McCluan,
is supposed to be an expert at this
business. He travels all over the coun-
try for the Smith people, demonstrate
ing. He could not be found this morn
ing. His escape from injury seems
little short of miraculous. when it is
recalled that the design of the car
the cruiser type-in which he was
riding surrounds him with more to
prevent his disengaging himself from
the steering wheel LndI1 Is the case
with most cars.
The members of the party which
rode in the ill-fated car had driven to
Topeka last night from Kansas City
in another Smith car which was in
need of repairs. 1t was left here and
the return trip undertaken in another
car. the one which went off the cliff.
The party left Topeka about 4:30
o'clock.
George w. Woolrey, a fisherman,
was one of the first to reach the scene
OF the accident. He had started across
the railroad track when he saw the
overturned car and saw several men
working to get someone out from
under it. He went to where the car
lay to give assistance, but Smith had
been removed from under the car at |
that time.
ct don't know how it happened" he |
said. "It looked to me like the driver
did not see the embankment until he |
was close upon it and then tried to |
turn into the road. His front wheels |
evidently went over the embankmentI /
and dragged the rest of the car down. /
The men would not talk and there was |
little I could do. so paid little atten- 4
ton to it,
Railroad Building Wall.
At the point where the accident oc-
CURED the Union Pacific is building a /
retaining wall to prevent the immense /
NIL from crumbling down upon the l