Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Wood, Anna July 19, 1933 ************************************************ 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: Nan Wheaton wheaton1624@yahoo.com June 13, 2014, 3:24 pm Ionia County News - Thurs. 20, 1933 WOMAN KILLED IN CRASH AT WOODS CORNER Mrs. Anna Wood, 78, Dies In Ionia Community Hospital HURLED FROM CARE BY CRASH IMPACT A woman was killed last night in an automobile accident at Wood’s Corners, seven miles north of Ionia on M-14, and two men narrowly escaped cremation. The woman was Mrs. Anna Wood, 78, who some years ago assisted her late husband, Marvin Wood, in the management of the Montcalm County Poor Farm. The two men, who were imprisoned in a Ford ’33 coupe and were in danger of cremation when flames first enveloped this car, were William D. Campbell, of Middleville, recently a teacher in the Detroit schools, and his companion, Russell Morris, of Lowell. Mrs. Wood was pitched to the pavement headfirst when an Overland touring car, driven by her brother, John Wood, 68, got into the path of Campbell’s approaching machine while they were turning into the driveway of their home at Wood’s Corners. She suffered a fracture at the base of the skull and was rushed to the Ionia Community hospital by the Boynton ambulance. She died at 11:15 p.m. about two hours after the crash without recovering consciousness. Campbell attempted to avoid the touring car as it turned into his path and swerved over into the roadside ditch. As his coupe struck the ditch, flame enveloped its rear when gasoline was jolted out of the car’s tank onto the exhaust pipe. This was miraculously extinguished, however, when the coupe went rolling over three times in grass on the roadside. Imprisoned in Coupe Campbell and his companion, Morris, were imprisoned in the coupe when the doors were jammed tight by the impact of the car’s jolting rolls. They were pulled out thru a side window by passing motorists. Wood, who was coming south on M-14, said that he had been taking a look at cars following him to see if he could make the turn into his driveway safely. As he then started the turn, he suddenly saw Campbell’s north bound car bearing down upon him. Campbell, swerving, managed to get the forepart of his coupe away from Wood’s machine, but the side clipped the left front wheel of Wood’s auto, knocking it off. The impact wrenched the touring car around, throwing its right hand door open and pitching Mrs. Wood to the cement. The ground loops which Campbell’s coupe went into after bouncing into the ditch and the flash of flame that shot upward from its rear first attracted the attention of other motorists who witnessed the accident. One of these was Frank Brusge, Ionia auto repair man, who was returning from Woodard Lake with Mrs. Brusge and their children. He rushed to the coupe believing its occupants must have been hurt if any one was. He found Campbell somewhat dazed and shaken up but otherwise unharmed. Morris, it was found, had had his hand forced thru the safety glass in the right side window of the coupe but only received some scratches. Fearing that the flames first seen on the car might again start up, Brusge shouted a warning to Campbell and Morris to get out. When they attempted to do so , they found the doors jammed. They lowered a side window. Brusage and others who had reached the coupe’s side by this time, then helped to pull them out. Meanwhile, little attention was given to the other car as Wood had been seen to get out and walk. When residents nearby and the other motorists later reached him, they found him at the side of his aged sister. It was first believed that she had merely fainted, and attempt was made to revive her with water as she lay in the road. When she failed to respond, call was sent to Ionia for an ambulance and Sheriff Herbert Ross was summoned. Mr. Wood told Ross that the suddenness with which he found Campbell’s car bearing down upon him had caused him to believe there were no lights on it. Brusge, who was following Wood a short distance to the rear, stated however that he distinctly saw lights on Campbell’s approaching machine and also on another one following closely behind. Campbell, for his part declared he was driving along at a normal cruising speed, estimated at probably around 45 miles an hour. Because of his nearness to the other car, he said, he had no idea that it would attempt to cross the highway in front of him. Further investigation by Sheriff Ross caused him to believe that Campbell was blameless in the crash. Campbell was on his way to Carson City when the accident occurred. It happened about 9:15 p.m. Mrs. Wood had been making her home with her brother, at Wood’s Corners since the death of her husband some time ago. Previously, she lived on a farm in Montcalm county. Some years ago she assisted her husband in running the Montcalm County Farm when he was the manager there. Additional Comments: Mrs. Marvin Wood File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/w/wood25512nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 5.3 Kb