Motorcycle Death for H. L. Haltiwanger Follows Earlier-Grade Crossing and Truck Accidents.

DAWSON KILLED NEAR STATE PARK

And Negro Woman Dies When Struck on Old Winnsboro Road – Total for Richland Rises to 18 for 1936.

Deaths in Richland county from motor accidents mounted yesterday from 15 to 18.

Death in Richland county from motor accidents mounted yesterday from 15 to 17.

Raymond I. Dawson, 37, of Lykesland, an employe of the State hospital, was instantly killed about 8:30 yesterday morning when the truck which he was driving was struck and demolished at a side road crossing just off the Asylum road about six miles from Columbia by a Southern passenger train. Dawson was returning to Columbia alone after carrying a group of WPA workers to the State Park sanatorium.

The second victim, Agnes Thompson, Negro, of 1001 Short street, Waverley, died instantly shortly after 1 o’clock yesterday afternoon when she was struck by a truck on the Old Winnsboro road about a quarter mile from the city limits of Eau Claire.

The third death occurred when a motorcycle driven by H. L. Halitwanger, about 27, of 3015 River drive, a

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Three Fatal Crashes Mark Day in Columbia

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driver fro a local ice company smashed into the end of an iron bridge rail at 11:45 last night on the Camp Jackson road about six miles from Columbia.

Coroner John A Sargeant, who with Sheriff T. Alex Heise investigated the accident, said that he “came to his death at his own hands while riding a motorcycle.” He added that no inquest would be necessary.

The body was found at midnight by Col. Claude C. Smith, visiting Col. J. F. Moore at Camp Jackson. Colonel Moore heard the crash about 15 minutes previously, Colonel Smith said.

Rhett Cooke, manager of the Blue Mon at the intersection of Highway No. 76 and the Camp Jackson road, said that Haltiwanger, with two companions, had come into the establishment about 10 o’clock and had stayed there for half an hour.

Haltiwanger was riding one motorcycle and another man and a woman on the other.

The three left the Blue Moon, but on finding that they could not start their machines, they started to walk, Mr. Cooke said.

A little later Haltiwanger returned alone, started his machine, and roared off in the direction of Camp Jackson, apparently from his words, Mr. Cooke said, to look for his companions from whom he had become separated. No one apparently saw him again until his body was found.

In Dawson’s death, the impact as the seven-coach train smashed into the cab of the truck reduced the vehicle to jumbled wreckage that was kicked ahead for 140 feet by the locomotive before tossed to one side of the track, where it burst into flames.

Dawson’s body was hurled along the side of the railroad track 20 feet beyond what was left of his truck.

Witnesses said that Dawson turned off the Asylum road, which runs parallel to the railway at that point directly into the path of the oncoming southbound Charlotte-Columbia train.

State hospital officials and a fire truck were rushed to the scene immediately. The truck was considered too badly smashed and burned to warrant an attempt to save it.

Coroner John A. Sargeant, who aided in the investigation, said that an inquest into the accident would be held at 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon at the Township auditorium.

Others investigating the accident were Sheriff T. Alex Heise and Deputy Sheriff Wade H. Rawlinson.

Dawson’s body was brought into Columbia by an ambulance of McCormick’s mortuary.

Funeral services will be conduced at 4 o’clock tis afternoon from the home of his brother, W. K. (“Bill”) Dawson, 1016 Bryan street, by the Rev. J. K. Hair, former pastor of Congaree Baptist church at Gadsden. Interment will be in the churchyard.

He was a member of Beulah Baptist church.

Hie is survived by two brothers, Milledge Dawson of Jacksonville, Fla., and W. K. (“Bill”) Dawson of Columbia; two uncles, Lee H. Dawson of Rideville, and J. D. Campbell of Lykesland; one aunt, Mrs. W. B. Bussey of Greenville; two nieces and one nephew.

Pallbearers will be Harry Campbell, Julius Campbell, Lloyd Westcott, J. Lee Gilmore, Urban Cook and Russell Revere.

In the case of Agnes Thompson, she was walking along the side of the road toward Eau Claire, officers said, when one of the uprights on the back of the lumber truck, owned by C. W. Wooten, which was traveling in the same direction hit her and hurled her body to the side of the road.

The driver of the truck, Vernon Nettles of Blaney, said he did not know he had struck the woman until he was stopped farther down the road and notified to the effect by occupants of a prison truck going in the opposite direction, who turned around and followed him.

Lieut. J. D. Townsend of the state highway patrol brought him back to the scene of the accident to await the arrival of the coroner. Nettles was not held.

Magistrate Frank Taylor discussed the possibility of the woman’s having walked into the side of the truck. Coroner John A Sargeant announced that an inquest into the accident would be held at 7:30 tonight at the Eau Claire town hall.

Investigating the accident were: Lieut Townsend, Sheriff T. Alex Heise of Richland county, Deputy Sheriff Wade H. Rawlinson, Coroner J. A. Sargent, Eau Claire Police Chief T. E. Johnson and Magistrate Taylor.

Funeral arrangements for the woman were not announced last night.