3 KILLED, 22 HURT BY HOLIDAY AUTOS

The New York Times
December 1, 1922

Three Men Are Held on Charges of Driving While Intoxicated.

PRISONER FACES 5 CHARGES

Car Plunges 45 Feet Over an Abutment in East Forty-Second Street.

Holiday automobile accidents cost the lives of three persons and resulted in injuries to twenty-two others, four of whom are in critical condition. Several drivers who figured in accidents were arrested, three of them charged with driving while intoxicated. One man was arrested on five charges—homicide, trying to escape after an accident, driving an automobile while intoxicated, assault and having an improper license.

Don Ebner of 340 East Eighty-fourth Street was the driver against whom the five charges were lodged. Early last evening Ebner ran down and fatally injured Charles Warren, 65, a janitor's helper, of 514 East 148th Street, at East Seventy-fifth and Exterior Streets. Ebner, it is charged, failed to stop his car after the accident, but Patrolman Harry Ervin jumped into another car and caught him after a chase of six blocks.

Warren, it was learned, was about to come into possession of $50,000. He was employed by Mrs. Mary Seldhouse at the Bronx address and it was she who told the police of his fight for the possession of a legacy, which he won Wednesday after litigation extending over many years. When Warren was 14, $50,000 was left to him under the will of an aunt, Mrs. Seldhouse said. In the seven years that elapsed before his majority the money became involved in litigation and he did not receive it, she added.

Some years ago Warren inherited a large sum of money from his father. This he spent in a few years and took up the fight again for the $50,000 his aunt had left him. Recently he bnrought suit against Henry Stevens of Hoboken, N. J., a cousin, to recover this money, Mrs. Seldhouse said, adding that Warren told her his suit had been settled out of court and that papers had been signed giving him the money.

Warren was at first taken in an ambulance to Flower Hospital, where he was examined by Dr. Bernstein, who found his skull and right leg fractured. He was transferred to Bellevue Hospital, where he died. He was identified after a letter addressed to him was found on his person.

Later an attorney for Ebner appeared in Night Court and asked Magistrate William Sweetser to admit the prisoner to bail. The Magistrate denied the request.

Jeremiah Coleman, 34, a laborer, died in Beckman Street Hospital last night from injuries received when he was struck at Oak and New Chambers Streets early in the morning. The automobile was operated by Jacob Peltz, 25, of 25 Pitt Street, who was arrested by Patrolman Frank E. Gutherman on a charge of homicide.

Small Boy Killed.

The death of a four-year-old-boy under the wheels of an auto truck at Eleventh Avenue and Forty-eighth Street resulted in a charge of homicide against the driver, James W. Dorry, 22, employed by the Polar Products Company, 11 West Forty-eighth Street. The boy, James Stewart of 600 West Forty-eighth Street was crossing the street with his brother, William, 10, when he was struck. Dorry continued on his way after the accident, but stopped when several boys who had seen the accident ran, yelling, after him.

Charles Hyer, the Stewart boy's cousin, who saw the accident, took the child to Bellevue in a taxicab, but the physicians there said that he was dead. Patrolman George Ward of the West Forty-seventh Street Station arrested Dorry. He told the police he did not know he had struck the boy.

William Stewart told the police that when he saw the automobile bearing down on them he jumped back, but his hand slipped from his little brother when he tried to pull him from the truck. The boys had gone for candy and were on their way home for Thanksgiving dinner.

Edward F. Harvey of 2,082 Ryer Avenue, the Bronx, died in Greenville Hospital, Jersey City, from a fractured skull, received when he was run down Wednesday night at Bergen and Bostwick Avenues. Witnesses supported the statement of Robert Breese of 107 Wegman Avenue, Jersey City, that the man had stepped from behind a bus directly in front of Breese's car.

Auto Drops Into Navy Dry Dock.

A taxicab plunged to the bottom of a dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard last night when the driver lost his way in the dark and ran through a chain stretched across the top of the dock. The taxi dropped thirty feet, but, according to naval officers on duty in the yard, the only person injured was the chauffeur, who was treated for cuts on his hands. The taxi was still at the bottom of the dock early this morning.

Captain Todd, in charge of the yard last night, declared he did not know the name of the chauffeur and disclaimed knowledge of a report that the taxi had two passengers—a man and a woman. One report was that the man in the cab was an officer named Bartlett. Captain Todd said that there was no man of that name in the yard, so far as he knew. It was learned from other sources that one of the ensigns on the U. S. S. Rochester, tied up near the scene of the accident, is named Bartlett. Captain Todd refused to allow reporters to board the Rochester. He said that there was no water in the dock.

At the naval hospital it was said that there was no record of any chauffeur having been treated there last night.

The cab entered the yard at about 9:30, according to records there. At Dock 3 there is a chain across the end to keep vehicles from running off. There are also arrows pointing away from the dock, but apparently the driver could not see them.

Car Plunges 45 Feet.

Traveling at high speed, a car driven by James Williamson, 22, of 656 East Sixteenth Street, plunged over an abutment at the east end of Forty-second Street into First Avenue, forty-five feet below. The chauffeur was thrown from the car and struck the pavement. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a compound skull fracture and internal injuries.

At the place where the accident occurred, the street car tracks enter a cut in the middle of Forty-second Street between First and Second Avenues. No one saw the accident, which occurred at about 3 o'clock yesterday morning, but marks on the street indicated that Williamson had applied the brakes about thirty feet from the spot where the car plunged. Police investigation disclosed that the license plates had been issued for another car.

Andrew McGovern of 22 Douglas Street, Brooklyn, was arrested on charges of intoxication and felonious assault following a collision between two automobiles last night at Atlantic and South Portland Avenues, in Brooklyn. Both cars were running in the same direction and, according to witnesses, McGovern's car had been zigzagging when he tried to pass the other, which was owned and driven by Jacob Levy of 830 Herkimer Street, Brooklyn. McGovern's car struck the other and both turned over. John Fox of 300 Union Street, Brooklyn, who was riding with McGovern, was treated at the Jewish Hospital for severe cuts of his right arm. In the Levy car were Levy's wife and two children, Evelyn, 8, and Joseph, 4, who were all treated for minor injuries.

Mob Attacks Taxi Driver.

Police reserves from the West 135th Street Station were called out last night to save a taxi driver who had run down a negro at 136th Street and Lenox Avenue, and then attempted to escape. Friends of the negro were attempting to take the prisoner from the custody of a patrolman who had placed him under arrest and were shouting "Lynch him!" when the reserves arrived.

Ralph Rosenfeld of 849 Eagle Avenue, the Bronx, was the driver. He ran down Nathaniel Matthews of 100 West Eighty-eighth Street, as Matthews was crossing the street. Rosenfeld, according to the police, stepped on his throttle and sped north on Lenox Avenue after the accident. Patrolman Daniel Mandell of the West 123rd Street Station, off duty and riding in his own automobile, saw the accident and followed the taxi. The chase continued to 141st Street and Fifth Avenue, where Rosenfeld ran the car into a garage.

Several friends of Matthews who had seen the accident came up shortly after Rosenfeld had been placed under arrest. They urged the crowd to take the law into their own hands. The crowd attacked Mandell and he was getting the worst of it when he blew his whistle. Several other policemen came up and held the crowd back until the reserves arrived. Rosenfeld was locked up in the West 135th Street Station on a charge of felonious assault. Matthews was removed to Harlem Hospital with a compound fracture of the right leg.

Driver Fined as Intoxicated.

Louis Sayre of Corinth, N.Y., was fined $25 by Judge Rosenwasser in Yonkers on a charge of operating an automobile while intoxicated. Sayre ran into a car driven by Henry Golden of 28 Prospect Street, Yonkers. He told the Judge that he was on his way to Manhattan to celebrate his birthday. Henry Golden's younger brother, Isidore, figured in another accident yesterday when a street car ran into his automobile on South Broadway.

Miss Ethel Pascott of 105 West 109th Street, Miss Theodora Winter of 210 West Eightieth Street, and Samuel Rubman of 484 East 164th Street were taken to Lincoln Hospital after their automobile overturned at 163d and Tiffany Streets, the Bronx. Miss Winter suffered a fracture of the hip and the others suffered less serious injuries. Alfred Cohen, the driver, of 1,298 Union Avenue, the Bronx, was treated for minor injuries and went home. He said he lost control of the wheel.

Harry Hichckop, 4, broke away from his mother as they were crossing Hart Street, near Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, and ran into the rear of a passing automobile, owned and driven by Philip Fisher of 53 Hart Street, Brooklyn. He was taken to Beth Moses Hospital in a serious condition.

Martin Engel, an auto truck driver, of 610 Howard Avenue, Brooklyn, was held in $5,000 bail on a charge of homicide. Abraham Wolwitz, 16, of 1,814 Park Place, Brooklyn, was thrown from his seat on Engel's machine and killed in a collision with another truck on Wednesday at Lewis Avenue and McDonough Street, Brooklyn.

Two men are in a critical condition in the Bayonne Hospital as a result of their injuries suffered Wednesday when their automobile struck a truck in West Fourteenth Street, Bayonne. The injured are Salvadore Clemento, 21, of 134 West Twentieth Street, and Abraham Otzen, 26, of 489 Avenue A, both of Bayonne. Clemento's skull was fractured and he was possibly internally injured. Otzen's right arm and right leg were broken. They were returning from a wedding when they sideswiped the truck.