7 CRIPPLED BOYS AND MAN DROWN AS AUTO DIVES IN PIT.

PARTY ON WAY TO CLINIC AS CAR GOES INTO MINE CAVE-IN.

ROAD AROUND DIGGINGS AT WILKES-BARRE SUDDENLY GIVES WAY.

WITNESS CALLS AID.

CHILDREN WERE HAPPY LOT AND HAD FELT THEY WOULD BE CURED.

Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Nov. 19 (UP) -- Seven crippled boys, between 7 and 14 years old, were drowned today while being taken to a clinic for treatments which they hoped would enable them to play like other children.
They were drowned along with the driver when the automobile in which they were riding plunged into an old mine cave-in filled with 30 feet of water.
Two of the boys were infantile paralysis victims. The others had been crippled by injuries at birth.
The dead:
WILLARD McINTOSH, 23, Breslau, driver of the ill-fated car.
GERLA DALTAVILLE, 10.
VINCENT WAJERS, 7.
FRANK YANKOSKY, 7.
FRANCES ZIONKOSKI, 11.
JOHN POMIANEK, 9.
EDWARD POMIANEK, 7, his brother.
THOMAS DRESS, 12.
All of the children lived in Wilkes-Barre township.
An eighth child missed death because the automobile had not reached his home before the accident occurred. After picking him up, the car was to have gone to the clinic.
A driver for the Wyoming Valley Crippled Children's Association had picked them up in various homes in Wilkes-Barre township and was taking them to the Kirby Health Center here, where they had been receiving treatments every Saturday.
They were chatting gaily as the car approached the city. Suddenly the road around the mine, which was marked off with big piles of ash three months ago when the cave-in occurred, gave way, plunging the automobile into the hole.
The driver of another car, traveling in the opposite direction, saw the accident and summoned aid.
The Wilkes-Barre fire department hurried its equipment to the spot, but in vain. A huge crane was brought up on a railroad which runs adjoining to the hole and finally managed to raise the car. The bodies of the seven children and the driver were in it. THey were beyond resuscitation efforts.
Some of the victims' parents had reached the scene when the crane lifted the automobile out of the murky water.
WALTER POMIANEK of Wilkes-Barre, who identified two of the boys as his brothers, said they were "in fine spirits" when they left home.
"They were so full of hope that they were being cured -- that they would be able to play like other children of their age," he said. "They always looked forward to these trips, not only because it meant further treatment, but because it gave them a chance to meet other unfortunate children."
Everything at the health clinic, sponsored by the Women's Junior League, had been put in readiness for the children. Despite their handicaps, physicians said they were a cheerful group, always hoping for the best, and confident that some day they could overcome their ailments.
The rain yesterday and today was believed to have weakened the roadbed around the mine, once worked as a part of the Stanton breaker of the Glen Alden Coal Company. Some of the parents of the victims are employed in the company's mines.
An official of the Children's Association identified the automobile as it was hoisted to the surface.

Syracuse Herald New York 1938-11-20
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!