3 KILLED BY AUTOS, 25 DRIVERS JAILED

The New York Times
December 14, 1922

Man Is Crushed Between Cars in the Bronx—Two Children Are Run Down.

WOMAN DIES AT CROSSING

Twelve Police Lieutenants Are Assigned to Duty in Safety Campaign.

Three persons were killed by automobiles in the streets of this city yesterday, while police officials were taking steps to inaugurate today their campaign to "make New York a safe place to walk in" and court officials were imposing jail sentences on twenty-five traffic offenders.  Eleven others were injured in the city and a woman was killed at a Passaic grade crossing.

Harry Moskowitz, 50 years old, of 1,626 First Avenue, was crushed to death at 180th Street and Daly Avenue, the Bronx, when a truck, backing up, pinned him against the radiator of another car.  Moskowitz was fixing the radiator when the truck, owned by the J. M. Horton ice Cream Company, backed up against him.  The driver, Philip Weisman, of 344 West Twenty-fourth Street, was locked up in the Tremont Station on a charge of homicide.

The other victims of automobile accidents in the city streets yesterday were children.  Charles Bloom, 6 years old, of 2,532 Creston Avenue, the Bronx, died in Fordham Hospital of a fractured skull after he had been run down in front of his home by a machine driven by Meyer Iskals of 1,539 Hoe Avenue.  James Leo, also 6, of 74 Richardson Street, Brooklyn, was killed while he was crossing Leonard Street at Frost Street.  The car that struck him belonged to the Morgan Casket Company of 572 Park Avenue.  The driver, Edward Milway, of 499 St. John's Place, Brooklyn, was arrested on a charge of homicide.

Woman Killed at Crossing.

Mrs. Emma A. Rooney, 45, lost her life at the Kipp Avenue Crossing, Passaic, last night, when her sedan was struck by a westbound aerie train.  Mrs. Rooney, who was the wife of Thomas R. Rooney of 12 Barney Street, Clifton, N. J., was on her way home from Christmas shopping.  The crossing had no gates or flagman at the time she was struck.

Twelve police Lieutenants selected by Deputy Commissioner Barron Collier have been assigned to duty by Commissioner Enright in connection with the campaign which is being conducted by the police against automobile accidents.  These Lieutenants are to be assigned one welfare officer from each station house within their districts and will start work this morning at 8 o'clock.

According to the program outlined by Deputy Commissioner Collier, the new safety officers will make a thorough investigation of conditions in the districts to which they are assigned.  Patrolmen will be interrogated on safety matters and asked for suggestions as to remedial methods.  Cases of reckless and careless driving will be observed and action taken against all offenders.  Public schools will be visited by a safety officer in each district and children will be taught the advantages of safety.  Drivers and chauffeurs of all the large commercial houses will be cautioned by safety officers.  An effort will also be made to discourage the diagonal crossing of streets by pedestrians, jay walking, stealing rides on trucks, buses or other conveyances or hitching to any vehicle when on biciycles or roller skates or indulging in other unsafe practices.

Monthly charts will be compiled in the Bureau of Safety for each precinct, showing not only the causes of various accidents, but the hours of the day and specific locations in which they occurred.  When any one locality shows an unusual number of accidents, steps will be taken immediately to remedy the situation.

The Lieutenants appointed as safety officers are as follows: Walter Abrams, Greenpoint and Williamsburg section of Brooklyn; Edward A. Bracken, Brownsville section, Brooklyn; John E. Copeland, Bronx; George Callum, lower east side, Manhattan; James A. De Milt, upper east side, Manhattan; Richard Hamilton, lower west side, Manhattan; Joseph Hemley, Queens; Harry S. Lobdell, Brooklyn; John J. McGee, beach section of Brooklyn; Peter J. Masterson , upper west side, Manhattan; William J. Ryan, Long Island City and Flushing, and Edward M. Shelveey, Bronx.

To Start Brooklyn Drive.

Magistrate Frederick B. House, in Traffic Court, sent twenty-five chauffeurs charged with violation of traffic laws to the workhouse for sentences ranging from three to fifteen days.  Three members of the Kings County Grand Jurors' Association, who sat on the bench in Traffic Court with Magistrate House and Magistrate Charles E. Sims, said there were going to try to "start things going" with equal force in the Brooklyn courts.  Among those who were arraigned before Magistrate House was Benjamin Stahl of 2,415 Davidson Avenue, the Bronx, who was held in $2,500 bail as a result of the death of Florence Carroll of 255 Fort Washington Avenue in an accident at 172d Street and St. Nicholas Avenue on Monday.

While playing in Elizabeth Street, near Hester Street, last night John Batoni, 7 years old, of 90 Elizabeth Street, was struck by an automobile driven by Henry Sadacca of 366 Canal Street.  He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where it was said that there was possibility that his skull was fractured.

Mrs. N. Demarest Putnam, wife of a Vice President of the Guaranty Trust Company, and her maid, Mary Piercy, were slightly injured when the car collided with a bus at Riverside Drive and 104th Street yesterday afternoon.  Mrs. Putnam was driving and, according to the police, said that her foot slipped from the brake and struck the accelerator.  Mrs. Putnam was treated by Dr. Shelley of St. Luke's Hospital and went from there to her home on Woodland Street, Englewood, N. J.  She was later removed to Englewood Hopsital for an X-ray.

Crippled Children Hurt.

Four crippled children were slightly injured when a bus, used to take them to and from school, overturned at 166th Street and Teller Avenue.  The driver swerved to avoid collision with a truck.  Elsie Delgresso, 16, of 373 East 157th Street, was taken to Lincoln Hospital for an injury to her right shoulder, while the others were able to go home.

Three men were injured when their automobile was wrecked in a collision with an auto truck at Third Avenue and Forty-ninth Street last night.  The inured were Joseph McAvoy, 34, of 325 Knickerbocker Avenue, Brooklyn; Benjamin Kreiger, 29, of 12 Hope Street, Brooklyn, and Frank Battalera, 70, of the Glenwood House, Fulton and Johnson Streets, Brooklyn.  All were treated by Dr. Cohen of Flower Hospital for cuts and bruises.  The driver of their car, Joseph Grupel, of 10 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn, was unhurt.  The truck was operated by Arvid Comstock, of 177 East Seventy-seventh Street.

Louis Dambrosil of 118 Alexander Avenue, Yonkers, and Joseph Grant of Tuckahoe were slightly injured when a truck in which they were riding overturned in making a turn at Barker Avenue and Megenta Street, the Bronx, tearing away about thirty feet of a picket fence.