A Report of a Frightful Accident

AUTOS LEAP INTO CHASM

Two automobiles, one only minutes behind the other, plunged yesterday evening into the unguarded chasm of the Santa Anita Wash just east of the city of Arcadia. Another automobile ran within a hair’s breath of adding to the wreckage in the ravine, but stopped short of the brink.

The first car, a twenty-two horse-power Buick, approached the gulf at the rate of 20 miles an hour. The driver supposed the road continued straight ahead with a gradual descent to the wash. It was only when he was a few feet of the brink, did he realize the danger. He applied the brakes and turned off the power, but the auto skidded over the brink and turned “turtle.” The occupants were thrown out, but escaped without injury.

As the stunned passengers of the wrecked machine lay in the ravine, a second car, a sixty horse-power Franklin shot thirty feet over the edge of the rut, striking on the western slope and making a complete somersault so that it faced east. (Two of the four passengers received bruises and lacerations that required hospitalization, but both had a complete recovery.)

While the unfortunate passengers of the two wrecked cars were being cared for, a third car was barely saved from crashing into the two that were lying in fragments in the gully below.

Upon recounting the mishap, it was determined that only the high speed of the Franklin car saved the party in the ravine. The heavier car passed completely over the Buick and its members. The bridge over the ravine had burned down five months prior and the County and the “Patriarch of Arcadia” (Lucky Baldwin) had been in a dispute over who was responsible for its replacement. No warning signs were posted nor was any night-light positioned at the site.

For your information: Mention of a claim against the city of Arcadia and Mr. Baldwin appears in minutes of the Arcadia Council meeting of January 20, 1908 and again in March, with reference to communications regarding an auto accident: Mr. Henry (the driver of the first car) vs Baldwin. Case settled for $100 and legal expenses.