New-York tribune., 1920-10-03
Mail Driver
Caught After
Car Kills Boy
Two Witnesses of Acct
dent Chase Chauffeur
as Four Children Are
Run Down i'm Street
Intoxicated, Says Doctor
Locked Up Later on Charge
of Homicide; Two Other
Boys and Man Meet Death

An automobile mail truck came clat-
tering up Eleventh Avenue at s o'clock
last night just as group of four
children, the eldest ten years old.
started across the tnoroughfare be-
tween Fiftieth and Fifty-frst streets.
The truck did not slacken it's pace but
went on up the avenue leaving four
small twltching bodies lying in the
street.
Two men, among the score who wit
messed the accident, went sprinting up
sne avenue in pursuit of the mail truck.
Ihey overlook the vehicle before it
had gone a block, swung themselves
ABOARD. and with threats that made the
eriver look anxious ordered him to
turn around
For once the majesty of the United
states mails was no protection, and
John r. Reardon, driver, had the wit
TO realize it. He swung his ponderous
vehlcte around and went back to where
the four children were lying. Charles
Vanderveer, ten years old, of 7C8 Elev-
enth Avenue, and his seven-year-old
sister, Reita, whose injuries seemed to
be the most serious, were lifted to the
mail sacks and Reardon started for
Roosevelt Hospital, still under the vigi-
lant guald of the two men who had
Dies on Way to Hospital
Charles was dead when he reached the
hospital. His sister was suffering on}v
from severe bruises, it was found. Rear
oon stlil was at the hospital, although
ms self-appointed guardians had de-
parted when. Patrolman Pointing, of
the West Forty seventh Street police
station, arrived in taxicab with the
other two victims of the accident.
They are Charles's brother, George,
tour years old, and Walter Strincer,
five, of 710 Eleventh Avenue. They
were severely bruised and George, it
was said, may have suffered a fracture
of the skull. AS soon as he had finished
dressing the injuries of the three chill
dren DR.. Cowan called the patrolman's
attention to Reardon, who, he said, was
intoxicated.
At the West Forty-seventh Street DO
lice station, where Reardon was locked
ur. charged with homicide, the driver
sald that he was going from the Post
Office garage at 327 West THIRTY
seventh Street to sub Station G on West
tltty-first Street, to collect mail. He
is said to have admitted that he was
IN a hurry, as he hoped to find time to
stop at home, 558 West Fifty first
Street, to get bite to eat.
Indignant at Liquor Accusation
He betrayed no signs of regret at
the accident and was Indignant because
the police booked him as being under
the influence of liquor instead of first
calling another ambulance surgeon from
Bellevue Hospital to establish the fact.
Another motor truck killed ten-year-
old Frances Persky, Of 456 East Tenth
Street, at Avenue D and Ninth Street
earlier in the day as she was carrying
home a bottle of milk from the grocer's.
Joseph Sutliffe, of West New York, N.
j., who was driving the vehicle, said
that his speed was less than ten miles
an hour at the time of the accident.
John Mullins, thirteen years old, Of
334 Pearl Street, slipped and fell be-
meath wheel of motor truck on
which he was trying to "catch a ride"
at Frankfort and Cliff streets. He was
killed. Louis Steling, Of 338 Four
teenth Street, Brooklyn, was.the driver
of the truck.
An automobile owned by Local II of
the Iron Workers Union upset in We
roma, N. j., when its front wheels
struck the trolley tracks at a cross
over, and Albert C.. Walters. president
of the union, was killed. He lived at
137 Plain Street, Newark. Timothy J.
Tiernan. of 80 High Street, Newark,
business agent of the union, suffered a
fracture of the leg.