Detroit, MI Interurban And Auto Collision, July 1922

FIVE KILLED AS SPEEDING INTERURBAN CAR HITS AUTO.

Detroit, July 30. -- Five persons were killed and one injured when an automobile attempting to avoid collision with another machine was crowded in from of a speeding Detroit & Pontiac interurban car just north of here today.
The dead are JOHN W. MURPHY, 45 years old; his sons, JOHN W. JR., 6, and JAMES F., 4; MRS. JOSEPHINE GAY, 50, all of Detroit, and MISS MARIE FLANAGAN, 17, Owesso.
NELSON OGDEN of Pontiac, the motorman, was badly cut by flying glass, the vestibule of the interurban being crushed in by the force of the collision.
The automobile caught fire and MURPHY'S body was virtually incinerated.
The victims died almost instantly.
Witnesses laid the blame for the accident on the unidentified driver of the other machine, who disappeared after the collision. They told the authorities that MURPHY, who was driving his car, had started to pass a truck going the same way when the other driver, coming from the opposite direction, veered around from the front of the truck and attempted to pass on the same side as MURPHY'S car.
The maneuver caught the automobile with the five occupants in a "pocket" and in attempting to avoid the oncoming automobile, MURPHY sent his car into the path of the interurban.

Onenota Daily Star New York 1922-07-31
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!