The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-10-27
JOHNSON LOSES
 LIFE WHEN CAR
 HURDLES TRAIL
INTERIOR TRAIL MANAGER FOR BROW FER LINE CRUSHED TO DEATH WHEN BIG AUTO TRUCK DROPS ON HIM FROM GRADE NEAR SALCHA STATION.

Advices received in town early yes terday morning from the Salcha tele- graph station prot information of the death of Oscar Johnson, interior trail manager for the Brewer Stage line M". Johnson was crushed to death when a big Jeffery quad which he was driving Left the road on the grade as the trail enters the valley just south of the Salchat hill, drop ped down an embankment about fif- teen feet and the front wheels land ed squarely on the driver, probably causing instantaneous death.
 The unfortunate man left Munsons roadhouse Thursday afternoon about 4:30 o'clock. When it was discov- cred yesterday morning that he had not passed the Salcha telegraph sta ticn. searching parties from Mun- sons and the station left to see what was wrong. Segeant Kinloch. oper- ator in charge at Salcha, heading the latter party, found the body beneath the truck, An examination revealing the fact that life was extinct, he inn mediately returned to the telegraph station and informed the local mar shars office of the accident. Deputy U. s. Marshal John Wood was sent to the scene at once in Tom Gibson's car. The outbound trip was made in about three hours, and returned to town shortly after z o'clock last evening with the remains which were taken to the local undertaking par lors.
 According to MT. Gibson, the truck had apparently been out of control for a distance of about 60 feet be- fore it left the road. It began to swing away from the ruts at the top of the grade which is at the end of slight curve, and as it descended the grade it kept cutting away from the hill and down toward the valley. It seems from this that the driver, who undoubtedly had plenty of time to jump, was confident that he could bring the truck back into the road.
 Where it finally dropped over the embankment is almost perpendicu- lar with drop of approximately fif- teen feet The outer wheels dropped down until the aXels touched the grade when the truck which had most of it's load on that side turned. From the position in which the body was found, it is believed that the driver either jumped or was hurled back ward and down, falling with his head against fallen tree at the bottom of the fill and the truck apparently struck him before he could rise, or else he was stunned by the fall and was unable to move. The truck landed with two wheels down on the earth flatwise and the opposite side in the air. The front wheel was damned against the drivers left leg and hip doubling it up and forcing it into his stomach and the hub of the wheel resting in the groin, all of the weight being on the hip and body of the victim. The head was damned against and partly under the tree against which it had been hurled.
 MT. Johnson is a recent conner in Fairbanks, bringing his family here from Chitina where he had been en- ployed by MT. Brewer since last year. He leaves a wife and two children to whom the sympathy of the entire town goes out in their bereavement No arrangements for the funeral and burial, which will be held here, have been made, but an announce ment will probably be made today.
 AsN