The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1921-05-25
INEyPERIENCE AND
SPEED CAUSE OF
AUTO SMASHES
CARS BADLY DAMAGED BUT
OCCUPANTS LUCKILY ESCAPE
VERY SERIOUS INJURY

An inexperienced girl acting as a
driver in a Ford runabout containing
four people in the one seat was re-
sponsible for an automobile accident
and a desire on the part of an lonia
man to show his young lady com
panion of this city that he was
speed demon from head to foot and
then some, was the cause of the
second automobile accident to happen
in this city within tn past few days
and in both instances the people who
were implicated in the affairs can
consider themselves extremely lucky
that they got out of the mix-up and
smash-up as well as they did.
The first accident happened at about
11:15 Wednesday night and the
machine was owned by two young men
from Saranac, who refused TO divulge
their names. With them Wee two
young women of this city and the
four were occupying the one seat
which the Ford runabout contained.
wished to drive the machine. so one of
the men claimed. She was allowed
to and the party came to grief when
she tried TO guide the machine off
from East State street and north on
Bridge street. A tree standing at
the corner near the Catholic church
happened to stand in the path which
the young woman chose for the car
and it proved to be the Henry's
Waterloo. The radiator was bent,
the left fender curled up and the
radius rod buckled and allowed the
left end of the front axle to swing
back nearly eight inches, while the
top sank back and looked like an
umbrella which a sudden gust of
wind had caught and turned wrong
side out. A smashed windshield and
other minor damages caused the tai
Ter of the two men to eXclaim rather
emphatically that no blankety-blank
girl would ever drive his automobile
again. They got out and while one
of the young fellows saw the girls
home, the other proceeded to
straighten things out and shortly
afterward they started out with the
badly battered Henry for Saranac,
where their credit was perhaps bet
ter at the garage than it was here.
In spite of the damages inflicted on
the Ford it made remarkable speed in
starting out fo- Saranac.
The second accident happened on
Saturday night at about II O'Clock
when Ford touring car, carrying
license plate number l60-028, driven
by Charles Loper of Ionia, and con-
tanning besides himself, a young lady
companion, tipped owe, at the west
city limits line and in addition to
practically demolishing the machine,
gave both Loper and his companion
the one big shaking up of their lives.
The man was the more seriously in
jured, apparently, of the two and he
was rushed to DR. HollaIrds Office
where he was given treatment and
rested up for short time after which
he was taken home.
The accident happened as a result
of too much gas. The car driven by
Loper was racing with another ca
and it was forced off from the main
road down into the sand road on the
south. 1t became unmanageable and
when the driver attempted to get the
machine back up on the hard road.
a front wheel snapped and over she
went, the fact that the occupants es-
capped as easy as they did seems near
miraculous. Frank Mosher and fam
lily were sitting out in their front
yard and noticed the racing machines
coming towards them and saw the
accident.
The machines we running in
neck and neck speed but when the one
dropped out and the accident hap
pened the occupants of the other car
kept right on going.