1971 — Jan 3, wrong-way car (3) and station wagon (5) collide, I-74, near Shelbyville, IN– 8

–8 AP. “Wrong-Way Crash Leaves Eight Dead.” Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA. 1-4-1971, p. 1.
–8 UPI. “Wrong-Way Crash on I-74 Near Shelby Kills Eight.” Greensburg Daily News, IN, 1-4-1971, 1

Narrative Information

Jan 4: “Shelbyville, Ind. (UPI) – An 18-month-old Illinois girl today lay critically injured in a hospital here, the sole survivor of an eight-fatality head-on collision of a car and a station wagon on one of Indiana’s ‘safest’ superhighways. The child was Donna Sue Singleton of Elk Grove Village, Ill. She was in Major Hospital in Shelbyville. Her parents and three brothers and sisters were among the dead.

“The other victims were three Indiana women riding in a car which apparently sped more than 20 miles along Interstate 74 between Indianapolis and Shelbyville going the wrong way on the divided-lane highway. Mrs. Thelma Slettvet, 36, Mrs. Marjorie Sweet, 41, both of New Castle, and Mrs. Virginia Dishman, 40, Wanamaker, were riding in the car headed southeast in the northwest lane which first sideswiped a big truck and then plowed into the station wagon containing the Singleton family. Apparently the Singleton car was passing the truck.

“Killed were Edsel D. Singleton, 32; his wife, Alice, 30; and their children, Sandra, 9, Michael 7, and Diana, 5.

“Authorities were unable to determine how the car got into the wrong lane of the super-highway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. But it apparently traveled all the way from an Indianapolis exit to a point just north of Shelbyville where the accident happened at 3:30 a.m. Sunday. The crash occurred one-half mile northwest of Shelbyville and the Indiana 9 interchange. Police said they were told that at least two persons tried to warn the driver of the car that she was in the wrong lane before the car sideswiped a truck driven by Dennis J. Clark, 42, Cincinnati, then smashed into the Singleton vehicle.

“There were estimates that both cars were traveling at least 65 miles per hour and possibly faster.

“Relatives did not know where the three women were going in Mrs. Slettvet’s car. The Illinois family was believed to have been en route home from a holiday visit in Tennessee.

“It was Indiana’s worst traffic accident from a standpoint of lives lost since October, 1969, when nine died in an Indianapolis wreck blamed on drag racers. National Safety officials said it was the worst accident in the United States during the New Year’s holiday weekend. The crash contributed to a New Year’s holiday weekend death toll on Indiana’s highways of 24 and raised the 1971 total today to 22 compared with 10 a year ago….” (United Press International. “Wrong-Way Crash on I-74 Near Shelby Kills Eight.” Greensburg Daily News, IN, 1-4-1971, p. 1.)

Jan 4: “Indianapolis (AP) – State police said three Indiana women traveled 20 miles in the wrong lane of a four-lane expressway south of Indianapolis Sunday before they met a tractor-trailer truck and a station wagon carrying an Illinois family of six. The tractor-trailer rig jackknifed and avoided the southbound vehicle, but the station-wagon, driven by Edsel Singleton, 32, of Elk Grove Village, Ill., and the misdirected auto collided heard-on.

“Singleton, his wife and three children and the three Indiana women were killed. The eight deaths made it the worst traffic crash of the holiday weekend.

“The three Indiana women – identified as Thelma Slettvet, 36, and Marjorie Sweet, 41, both of New castle, and Virginia Dishman, 40, of Indianapolis – were thrown from the vehicle and police were uncertain who was driving.

“The truck driver rescued a 20-month-old child from the Singleton car. The dead, beside Singleton, were his wife, Alice, 30, and children, Sandra 9, Michael, 7, and Diana, 5.” (Associated Press. “Wrong-Way Crash Leaves Eight Dead.” Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA. 1-4-1971, pp. 1 and 3.)

Sources

Associated Press. “Wrong-Way Crash Leaves Eight Dead.” Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA. 1-4-1971, pp. 1 and 3. Accessed 3-7-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/cedar-rapids-gazette-jan-04-1971-p-1/

United Press International. “Wrong-Way Crash on I-74 Near Shelby Kills Eight.” Greensburg Daily News, IN, 1-4-1971, p. 1. Accessed 3-7-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/greensburg-daily-news-jan-04-1971-p-1/