2 KILLED, 12 HURT IN AUTO ACCIDENTS

The New York Times
December 16, 1922

Unidentified Woman Loses Life at 97th St. and Third Av.—Man Dies in Brooklyn.

PATROLMAN IS INJURED

Two Other Persons in a Serious Condition—Record Sentence for Speeding in Brooklyn.

Two persons were killed, and 12 others, including a policeman, were injured yesterday in automobile accidents, caused partly by speeding and partly by the slippery streets.  The policeman and two others probably were hurt fatally.

An unidentified woman, seemingly well-to-do, was killed instantly when hit by an automobile said to have been that driven by William S. Nevins of Clinton Avenue, Bergenfields, N. J., at Ninety-Seventh Street and Third Avenue, last night.  She was dressed all in black, except for her shoes, which had black straps.  The clothing was of good quality.  She was about 60 years old, had grey hair and blue eyes, and weighed about 140 pounds.  In a pocket of her coat was $130.  She wore a bar pin containing ten diamonds, and four plain gold rings.  Nevins was held on a charge of homicide, although he denied that it was his car which hit the woman.

Frank Whalen, 32, of 110 Bedford Avenue, was killed when a car he was driving skidded and crashed into the side of a brick building at Franklin and Oak Streets, Brooklyn.  The car belonged to Charles Moskiwitz of 84 Rodney Street and had been removed from a garage without his permission.

In the rear seat were Arthur Clark of 67 North Tenth Street, Brooklyn, and John Farrelly of 121 South Second Street, Brooklyn.  A woman's hat also was found in the car, but both men denied that a woman had been with them.  Clark and Farrelly were found unconscious under the car, the former with internal injuries and the latter with concussion of the brain.  Both were taken to Greenpoint Hospital and may die.

Woman Seriously Hurt.

A woman lying in Broadway last night was seen by Arnold Klein, a taxicab driver, of 804 Fairmont Place, the Bronx.  He called Patrolman Vincent Heller, who lifted the woman and put her in Klein's car.  She was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where it was found that her skull was probably fractured.

She recovered consciousness and said she was Martha Kauth, of 54 East Fifty-ninth Street.  She was hit by a car while crossing Broadway at Seventy-fourth Street.  Her condition is serious.

Patrolman Raymond Merrell of 134 Dongen Street, West New Brighton, Staten Island, was seriously injured on the Amboy Road at Richmond Valley, Staten Island, when the police car in which he was riding skidded in the snow and collided with another machine driven by Victor Jackson of 16 Pike Street, New Brighton.

The police car was operated by Patrolman Herbert C. White of 2,716 Amboy Road, Tottenville.  Jackson was uninjured, but Merrell was found suffering from internal injuries at the Richmond Memorial Hospital.  Jackson, driving without a license, was summoned to appear in the Second District Court today.

An automobile struck Mrs. Isabel Amey of 208 East Thirty-eighth Street last night, carrying her two-year-old son Walter.  The baby was knocked from her arms and flung beside its mother on the pavement.  They were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where it was found that their injuries were not serious.  Patrolman Walter Hunt of the East Thirty-fifth Street station, who saw the accident, said the car did not have license plates.

Two Hit by Truck.

Frederick Fehie, 41, of 190 West 101st Street, and Florence Kaufman, 38, of 230 West 101st Street, were hit by a truck at 103d Street and Amsterdam Avenue and slightly injured.  They were taken to the Reconstruction Hospital.

John Sheehan, 47, of 841 Washington Street, was crushed between a motor truck and a wagon at Washington and Gansevoort Streets and taken to St. Vincent's Hopsital.  Several ribs were broken.

Katherine McAvoy, 66, of 335 West Twenty-ninth Street, was struck by an automobile while crossing Eighth Avenue at Twenty-ninth Street and slightly injured.  She was taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Alfred Leon, 58, a mechanic, of 239 West Twenty-sixth Street, was struck by an automobile at Twenty-first Street and Eighth Avenue.  Both legs were broken and he was taken to Bellevue Hospital.  His wife is ill in St. Mark's Hospital.

Max Herzfeld, 33, of 252 East Seventy-seventh Street, driver of the automobile which struck and killed Joseph James Devin, 9 years old, of 2,798 Eighth Avenue, on Thursday, was held in $1,000 bail on a charge of homicide by Magistrate Marsh, in the Homicide Court, yesterday.

Heavy Sentence for Speeder.

The heaviest sentence ever meted out in the Brooklyn Traffic Court was imposed yesterday on Tauber Max of 104 East Third Street, Brooklyn, by Magistrate McCluskey.  Two charges of speeding were made against him and he was classed as a third offender.  The police said he had been convicted twenty-one times, and was arrested sixteen times in 1921 and twelve times in 1922 in connection with murders, burglaries and traffic violations.  Max was fined $100 each on the two charges with the alternative of spending 100 days in jail for each offense.  He also must spend ten days in jail on one charge and sixty days on the other.

Three truck drivers were fined $25 each by Magistrate Simms in the Traffic Court for driving defective vehicles.  Two others pleaded not guilty.  Those fined were Louis Adler, 27, of 228 Amboy Street, Brooklyn; Martin F. Flaherty, 23, of 55 State Street, Brooklyn, and Theodore Patst, 24, of 539 West Forty-fourth Street.  Flaherty could not pay his fine and was sent to jail.

Magistrate Simms complimented Lieutenant Noonan in charge of the campaign against defective cars, and said he would write to Commissioner Enright that all chauffeurs brought before him in the future for driving with defective brakes or steering geer, would be sent to the workhouse.