Warwick, RI Trolley - Auto Wreck, Jul 1911

CAR KILLS THREE IN AUTO.

Bushes Prevented Menzel Seeing Trolley Going Forty Miles an Hour.

WARWICK, R. I., July 4.--His view cut off by dense bushes growing on both sides of the crossing, Gustav Menzel of Riverside drove his automobile directly in front of an open trolley car moving at the rate of forty miles an hour this afternoon, and as a result three of the occupants of the automobile are dead and Menzel and the fifth occupant are badly injured. The dead are:

BIDWELL, Miss ELLA M., 25, of Providence.
HARTLEY, Mrs. EVA, 50, of Providence.
HARTLEY, Miss MILLIE J., 18, Mrs. Hartley's daughter.
The injured are:

Guatav Menzel, Riverside, forty years old, back and chest injured and possibly fractured skull; Raymond Hartley, ten-year old son of Mrs. Hartley, badly bruised about the head and body.

The accident occurred at a point where the so-called Oakland Beach Road, a private highway, crosses the trolley tracks between Long Meadow and Grant's Station. Motorman George E. Lake of the car, which was bound from Rocky Point for Providence, declares that he saw nothing of the automobile until it was squarely on the tracks. No action was taken by the authorities against Lake or his conductor, W. L. Benson.

All the injured persons were alive when the trolley car was stopped immediately after the collision. They were placed on board a trolley car for a quick run to the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. Miss Hartley, who was a teacher in one of the Providence grammar schools, died on the way; Miss Bidwell died just as she was being taken off the car, and Mrs. Hartley died twenty minutes after she had been placed in the hospital.

Menzel and Raymond Hartley remained in the hospital tonight.

The New York Times, New York, NY 5 Jul 1911

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Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!