1938 — Nov 19, Auto with 7 Crippled Children Falls into Mine-Pit, Wilkes-Barre, PA– 8
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 10-31-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–8 New Castle News, PA. “Probe Accident Costing Lives…Eight…Wilkes-Barre.” 11-21-1938.
–8 Titusville Herald, PA. “7 Cripples Die as Car Plunges into Mine Hole.” 11-21-1938, p. 1.
Narrative Information
“By the Associated Press. Wilkes-Barre, Nov. 20. – Grief-stricken relatives today arranged separate funerals for seven crippled boys and an automobile driver who perished in a car that plunged into a water-filled mine hole beside a closed road. Masses for the boys, whose twisted mud-soaked forms were recovered Saturday after more than four hours of grappling, will be celebrated Tuesday morning. They ranged in age from seven to 12….
“Deputy Coroner J. Emmet Brislin summoned Wilkes-Barre township police and officials of the Glen Alden Coal company to an inquest Tuesday night. They will be asked to testify what steps were taken to block the road to traffic after the gaping hole broke through the surface three months ago because of a mine settlement. The hole is located on the coal company’s property near the southern city line. Brislin said recent rains raised the water level in the hole, into which a broken sewer line also poured its drainage.
“Chief of Police Michael Skuba of Wilkes-Barre township said ashes had been plied three or four feet high at both ends of the road to block traffic, but in spite of that several cars had driven through. Skuba said the section of the cave near the road had been filled with ashes until rains washed the fill away early Friday morning.
“Charles F. Terry, vice president of the Crippled Children’s Association, said McIntosh had used the road occasionally as a short-cut from lower Wilkes-Barre to Wilkes-Barre township in picking up the children for the clinic to which they were taken each Saturday.” (Titusville Herald, PA. “7 Cripples Die as Car Plunges into Mine Hole.” 11-21-1938, p. 1.)
Nov 21: “Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Nov. 21 — Gross negligence on the part of Wilkes-Barre Township commissioners in failing to barricade a water-filled mine cave-in where seven crippled boys and their driver were drowned Saturday was charged today by C. S. Terry, Wilkes-Barre sugar broker and vice president of the Wyoming Valley Crippled Children’s Association. Terry said he was going to propose to the Association this morning, that District Attorney Leon Schwartz of Luzerne county take over the investigation from Deputy Coroner Emmett J. Brislin, whose private mortuary, received the eight bodies.
“Meanwhile. Brislin called an inquest for tomorrow night and subpoenaed township officials, officials of the Glen Alden Coal Company, and alleged witnesses.
“The youngsters, ranging in age from seven to 12 years, and their driver, Williard McIntosh, 22 plunged to their deaths as the sedan in which they were riding through a blinding rainstorm dropped into a cave-in beside a closed road.
“While grief-stricken relatives made funeral arrangements, Terry declared he was ‘’absolutely convinced” that the tragedy was the fault of the township commissioners, plus an apparent negligence on the part of the dead driver, McIntosh. ‘I think there was gross negligence, whether the road was a dedicated highway or nor.’ Terry asserted. ‘The commissioners knew the cave-in was slipping on Friday, the day before the accident. Why they didn’t close the road is more than I can understand….
“The dead boys:
Edward, 8, and John Pomianck, 10, brothers…
Vincent Wajers, 7…
Francis Zionkoski, 11…
Frank Yonkoski, 9…
Lawrence Dress, 10….
“The boys were enroute to the Kirby Memorial Health center in Wilkes Barre for treatment when the accident occurred.” (New Castle News, PA. “Probe Accident Costing Lives of Eight Near Wilkes-Barre.” 11-21-1938, 9.)
Sources
New Castle News, PA. “Probe Accident Costing Lives of Eight Near Wilkes-Barre.” 11-21-1938, 9. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=57572556
Titusville Herald, PA. “7 Cripples Die as Car Plunges into Mine Hole.” 11-21-1938, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=106021474