Returning From W.C.T.U. Contest, Two Women and Boy Leap From Moving Car

Here is something I found while looking for something else. This appeared in the Ypsilanti Daily Press of Saturday, December 4, 1909.

Two women were hurled into space Friday evening from the rear platform of the 9:45 Detroit, Jackson & Chicago railway (Interurban) in a mysterious accident of which no explanation has been offered, either by car officials of victims.

Returning from the gold and silver Medal contest held by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union at Denton, Mrs. Herbert Burrell, 33, her niece, Mabel, 20, and the latter’s brother, Ray, 17, were precipitated to the hard gravel road which runs parallel to the tracks, a distance of 25 feet from the roadbed. Mrs. Burrell today is suffering from a broken shoulder, other serious bruises and physicians in attendance cannot tell but what internal injuries, which they fear she has suffered, will prove fatal.

Mrs. Burrell’s niece, Mabel, is able to walk but is bandaged from head to foot. Her brother Ray is uninjured.

The cause of the accident? No one knows.

These facts can be gleaned however, from the maze of assertions made by those who witnessed the accident.

The car, which was under the charge of Motorman James McCormick and Conductor Jay Nelson, was proceeding at a fair rate of speed between Smith’s switch and Mrs. Burrell’s home, which is located about two and one half miles east of this city. As the car neared the Burrell farm, Mrs. Burrell, Mabel and Ray jumped from their seats and rushed to the rear platform. Ray jumped off uninjured.

The motorman, it is said had received no single to stop, and it is not understood why Mrs. Burrell leaped from the car. She was hurried to the roadside, and her shoulder broken, besides suffering sever bruises and possible internal injuries.

When Mable saw her aunt leap from thee moving car, she screamed and followed the lead of her relative. It was a miracle that she was not severely injured, in fact both of them not killed.

The car proceeded on its way for perhaps what would amount to two or three city blocks. A passenger, who had witnessed the sudden departure of the three passengers, recovered from the daze he was in, pulled the bell rope and rushed forward telling the conductor of the accident. The car was stopped and backed up. Mrs. Burrell was placed aboard the car and Miss Mabel assisted to a seat. The car stopped at the Burrell home and physicians were summoned.

When the unfortunate woman was placed in the car, her face and clothes were coveted with blood and it was feared that she was fatally injured.

The car was well filled with people returning from the contest at Denton and there were a number of passengers from Detroit, as the car was a through passenger.

The officials of the company could throw little light on the accident when questioned this morning, having but a meager account of the affair.

Miss Mabel and Ray Burrell are the children of Alfred J. Burrell, who with Herbert Burrell conducts the Burrell Bros. farm about two miles east of town. The families are well known in this section of the county, and Mrs. Burrell is an enthusiastic member of the Women’s Temperance Union.