Berrien County MI Archives Obituaries.....Rider, Perry July 25, 1938
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Mary Ellen Drolet marydrolet@comcast.net April 20, 2008, 10:39 am

Niles Daily Star, Tuesday, July 26, 1938, page 1-2
Niles Daily Star, Tuesday, July 26, 1938, page 1-2
Perry Rider[sic], 17, Victim; Dies in Hospital After Accident in B. Springs
Warned by Others of Dangers on Old Bridge
Lives Three Hours
Campers Apply First Aid Methods to Revive Youth

     Fatally burned when 37,000 volts passed through his body, Perry Rider, 
17, son of Mr. and Mrs. Rollie Rider, 423 Parkway, died at 7:58 o'closk Monday 
night in Pawating hospital.

     The tragedy occcurred at 4:50 o'clock Monday afternnon on the north 
approach of the interurban bridge crossing teh St. Joseph river at berrien 
Springs.

     Accompanied by a companion, Robert Fernstahl, 15, son of Mr. and Mrs. 
E.F. Fernstahl, 204 Woodruff street, Perry had gone to Berrien Springs to swim.

     The boys had just started home when the fatal accident took place. 
According ot the Fernstal boy, who was an eye witness, Perry had climbed the 
upright girders and had stared to walk across the top of the bridge when he 
came in contact with the high tension wires.

     The jolt from the current knocked the Rider boy off the bridge into the 
water, a fall of about 45 feet.  Robert Wollam and Joan Davidson, both of 
Berrien Springs, waded about 35 feet out into the river and brought the boy to 
shore.

     The sheriff's office at St. Joeph was notifeied.  A deputy started at 
once for Berrien Springs with the county's new resuscitation machine.

     Meanwhile, campers attracted to the scene, applied artificial 
responiration to the victim.  His breathing was restored before the deputy 
arrived.  When Rider began to breathe he wa rushed to Pawating hospital inthe 
Nichols ambulance.

     Although the body was badly seared he regained consciousness at the 
hospital and recognized his parents before he died.

     Deputy Sheriff Speese said that he was informed that boys in the vicinity 
had warned Rider against climbing to the top of the bridge, which had not been 
used for several years, and had told him that it was dangerous.

     On May 23 the Rider and Fernstahl boy narrowly escapted death when they 
fell from the rafters of a barn on the Claude Harger farm on M-40 north of 
Niles.

     In that accident the Fernstahl boy sufferred serious head bruises and 
remained in the hospital until June 11.  The Rider boy escaped injury when he 
landed in a pile of hay.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/berrien/obits/r/rider3284gob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/

File size: 2.9 Kb