The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-06
Isaac HaWes Unable
To Negotiate Curve
DitChes His Car
RUNNING AT TERRIFIC
SPEED INTO STEPNEY.
Machine Snaps Telegraph Pole
and Tears Through Heavy
Stone Wall Tossing Oc-
cupants High In Air.
EYE WITNESS TELLS OF
. APPALLING CATASTROPHE
Says Car Was Running at Ex-
press Speed and Villagers
Hearing 1t in the Distance
Ran Out to See It
Rush By.

/ "A
the most sensational circumstances
and attended by pathetic scenes as one
sister attempted! to nurse back to life
her already dead sister, occurred near
Stepney early this morning and snuff
| ed out instantly the life of one Of
! Bridgeport's prettiest and most popu-
| lar girls-oT1e whose happy life was
| just beginning and whose honorable
career gave promise of most ro-
seate future. Three others were bad
| ly injured.
| The dead girl is Miss Alma B. Best,
| aged "A, daughter of the late Thomas
Best, residing with her aunt, 107 Berk-
shire avenue and for several years
head bookkeeper in the garage of the
Erwin M. Jennings Company garage
on Erairaeld avenue.1 She died OF a
fractured skull 71-sss4se ---s-
The Injured are:
Isaac Halves, of Milford, owner Of
and driver OF the powerful five passen-.
ger 5000 horse power Stea,rns car in
/ which the party were riding towards
Bridgeport. Reported to be cut abont
| the head, two ribs fractured and prob
able internal injuries. Now under
| treatment and arrest in room of the
/ Newtown Inn.
May Best, a sister of the dead girl,
| formerly of this city where she re-
sided with her sister and an aunt,
Mrs Anna M. Wolf, 107 Berkshire
avenue, but recently a trained nurse
at the Post Graduate Hospital in New
/ York city. Cut about the face and
body but able to attend the injured.
Now at the iNewtown Inn.
| Charles Philip Merwin, foreman Of a
i factory in New Britain, 1aceratons of
the face, bruises of the body and gem
eraI shock. Treated by physicians
and taken to the neighboring resi-
! dence of William Craft at Stepney,
! and later to Newtown.
The cause of the accident is as yet
fully unknown although Hawes who
is restricted from talking by Sheriff
A. b. Brakeman, is said to have told
a friend that a bursting tire was the
initial cause
The scene Of the fatality is Upper
Stepney. William B. Crafts home, at
the east of the turnpike, is within a
wide, sweeping curve. On the oppos-
ite side of the street is an old fashion
led well with big sweep, a landmark
familiar to motorists. "A few feet
lsouth of the we'll stands a telegraph
mole at the angle of a stone wall which
runs along Main street, then at right
I angles with the street, down grade
through a pasture lot. About 100 feet
south of the pole and back in the
lot are several apple trees. The pas
ture. lot Is ribbed with a ledge of
rough rocks
Tracks visible in the roadway hours
after the accident plainly indicated
the circumstances. Running into
Bridgeport, the motorfst finds con
sid erable grade, with a noticeable arch
at the curve in the road. The excel
IIent surface makes motoring compare
| lively safe despite the down grade and
bend in the road.
Il At point 125 feet north of the ele-
+ graph pole might be seen the tracks OF
Hawes' car. The machine was com
ing too fast for the driver to negotiate
the turn and for the distance of 125
feet the turf, on the outside of the
road was torn up by. the heavy wheels.
The tracks well as the condition OF
the car show that the was SO far
out of the road that the left wheel
hit the telegraph pole, the car being
| headed straight for the stone wall be-
fore it struck the pole.
The fence was bow1ed over, the tires
and posts torn away, and the car
vaulted into the pasture lot with its
front axle torn off. The forward part
of the machine then ploughed into the
pasture ground, tore it up for some
distance, and ended it's wild career
with the body, right side up, headed
straight for the street. The car was
65 feet beyond the telegraph pole, and
1sO feet from the point where it first
left the roadway for the ditch.
The party left the Newtown Inr
shortly after six o'clock this morn
ing bound for Bridgeport. Miss May
Best, who was upon a vacation, had
been staying there for the past ter
days 1t had been the custom Of the
sister to visit her every night driving
from here in automobile, returning
in time for her work the following
morning. On Saturday evening they
were Joined by old friends, Hawes an6
Merwin. AS they left the Inn, Merwir
is said to have asserted that they wert
late and would have difficulty in catch
ing a train from Bridgeport which
would take them to New Britain.
| Residents along the roadway stat