Coroner Juries Decide to Hold 2 Drivers

The Spartanburg Herald
March 4, 1954 {partial scan failure}

Coroner's juries Wednesday ... decided drivers should be held for further investigation in two ... automobile accidents.

The drivers were: Robert ... Williams, driver of a car which ... and fatally injured Mrs. Cle... ...ham, 60, of 158 Converse ... Saturday morning at Dun... ...N. Church Streets; and Bo... Fisher, driver of a truck ... collided head-on with a car ... of Inman Jan. 27, fatally ... Mrs. Naomi Whitener, ... Ethel Whitener, 11, both ... ...pobello Route 2.

E. D. White testified ... driving behind the car ... Mrs. Dunham and saw the accident happen. He said that the Plymouth driven by William ... just started around a corner ... the light turned green, ... moving very slowly. ... threw her to the pavement ... her head very hard ...

Coroner George L. Adams ... a physician's statement listing ... injuries and stating that death apparently was caused by severe ... damage. City Patrolman Ed Turner also testified.

In the Whitener inquest, witnesses agreed that the car driven by Mrs. Whitener's husband, ... Whitener, and Fisher's truck collided on the truck's side of the road. Whitener told the ... however, that the truck had no lights, and that he first saw it about 15 feet away on his (Whitener's) side of the road. He though the truck was making a left turn and he swerved to the left to miss it, Mr. Whitener said.

He said the truck was followed by another truck with only one light.

Fisher said his truck had lights, but that they may have gone out when he dimmed them. He said the dash lights went out, but he couldn't tell about the headlights because he was blinded by the car's lights, which hadn't been dimmed.

Two Gramling youths, ... Blackwell and Fred Newman, said they saw the accident and that Fisher's truck had lights when it passed them seconds before the impact.

State Highway Patrolman H. G. Osteen said there were no skid marks. He said the right front of both vehicles bore the impact of the collision.

J. Wright Nash appeared for the state in both hearings.