Cerro Gordo County IA Archives News.....Decker Crossing Deaths "Accidental" 1939
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Kay Ehlers k.ehlers@earthlink.net July 13, 2005, 12:46 pm

Globe-Globe Gazette Apr. 1939 1939
From the Mason City (Cerro Gordo, Iowa) Globe-Gazette, Wednesday, April 5, 1939,
p. 8 col. 2, with banner headline:

DECKER CROSSING DEATHS "ACCIDENTAL," JURY DECIDES

'TOO INVOLVED IN CONVERSATION,' WITNESS CLAIMS
Michael Winter Stood Only 30 Feet Away at Time of Crash

A coroner's jury Wednesday decided that the deaths of Albert Ewald and Martin
Anderson, Northwood farmers, on the M. and St. L. Railroad crossing of Fifteenth
street northeast were "accidental."

"They were too involved in conversation," testified Michael Winter, 213
Thirteenth place northeast, to see him signaling for them to stop or to see the
train which was coming directly toward the car before Mr. Ewald turned it toward
the west to cross the track.

SIGNAL WAS FLASHING
Mr. Winter said that he was on his way home at the time and stood about 30 feet
from the spot where the train struck the car. He watched the car emerge from the
driveway into the Jacob E. Decker and Sons loading yards a few feet southeast of
the crossing, drive to the north side of Fifteenth street, and then proceed
westward directly into the path of the oncoming train.

Both Mr. Winter and Charles Hall, special policeman for the packing company who
also saw the accident, testified that the train whistle was blowing before the
accident and that the bell was ringing. Mr. Hall also said that the automatic
flash crossing signal was working at the time.

COULD HAVE SEEN THE TRAIN
"The driver could have seen the train if he had looked," said Mr. Hall. He also
affirmed the testimony of the engineer, William A. Cross, Marshalltown, that the
train was only 50 feet from the corssing.

The auto was facing north, almost directly toward him, when he first saw it, the
trainman said, and the weather was clear and the vision good.

TRAIN PUSHED WRECKAGE
John E. Wallace and Charles E. Van Horn, police officers, testitfied that the
train pushed the wreckage of the auto 420 feet from the crossing before it
stopped and that the body of Mr. Ewald was thrown from the car under the train
175 feet from the center of the crossing.

R. Schmidt, 216 Fifteenth street northeast testified that he was in his car
waiting to enter his driveway beside the railroad track when the accident
happened and corroborated the previous evidence.

Mr. Ewald was driving at the time of the accident and his daughter, Evelyn, 16,
was riding in the front seat with him. Mr. Anderson, their farm hand, was riding
in the back seat.

DAUGHTER IS RECOVERING
Evelyn's condition was reported as "good" Wednesday. She was taken to the Park
Hospital in an unconscious condition after the accident but suffered only cuts
about the head and an injury to her left knee.

Dan Fitzpatrick, assistant county attorney, conducted the examination of
witnesses at the inquest at the request of Coroner E. J. McDonald. The jury was
composed of J. R. Gillam, Richard Romey, and M. Roy West.

Their verdict was "We the jury having heard the evidence find that the cause of
death was accidental."


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