Allegheny County PA Archives News.....Auto Crash Fails to Delay Aid for Coasting Victims March 5, 1930
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Rich Bentley RichBentley@sbcglobal.net January 15, 2008, 11:02 pm

Pittsburgh Press, Front Page March 5, 1930
Auto Crash Fails to Delay Aid for Coasting Victims

Coasting hazards were multiplied for Richard and John Bentley (above), yesterday
when, after being hurt by bumping into a parked car with their sled, they were
in a second accident while being rushed to a hospital. Below is Harry M.
Schaffer, whose car was in a collision while he was taking the lads for medical
care.
* * *
Driver Rushing Pair to Hospital Crashes With Another Car.
A badly crippled auto, its bumper dragging the ground, failed to deter Harry M.
Shaffer, 1100 block Burns St., Wilkinsburg, in his mission of mercy yesterday.

And two youngsters, Richard 7, and John Bentley, 8, 600 block Greendale Ave.,
Edgewood, are doing nicely in Columbia Hospital after surviving an auto
collision while being taken to a hospital unconscious after a coasting accident.

Sled riding down Swissvale Ave. near their home late yesterday, the boys crashed
into a parked auto.

Schaffer, standing nearby, ran to the scene and pulled them, unconscious and
bleeding from beneath the car. Placing both, in his own auto, he drove to their
home, and getting no response at the door started for the hospital.

Driver is Stunned

At West and South St., Wiliknsburg, Schaffer collided with another car, knocking
it across the pavement to the yard of A. P. Gellespie where it damaged two posts.

Although stunned by the crash, Schaffer continued to the hospital with his
damaged car, and after placing the boys under physicians care in the emergency
room, returned to the scene of the collision, where he told the other driver,
William A. Cuda, 400 block Highland Ave., Turtle Creek, how it all happened.

"I called to the boys to look out as their sled headed in the direction of the
car." Schaffer recounted in his home today. "But they probably didn't hear me
and ran under the auto.

"They were bleeding badly when I got them from under the car. I first took them
to the home of their parents, but when I didn't find Mrs. Bentley at home I
drove to the hospital.

"It was at the intersection of West and South Sts., Wilkinsburg, several blocks
from the hospital, that I collided with another car. None of us were injured,
though the car skidded into the yard of a home in South St.

Kept Going.

"I kept on going to the hospital though the bumper was dragging on the street
and holding the car back.

Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Bentley, parents of the boys, said today that they had been
given assurance of their recovery.

"Richard's skull is fractured though doctors don't think it's very bad, while
John has some bad scalp lacerations," Bentley said. "They'll come through o.k.
though," he said hopefully.

Richard and John are the Bentley's only children. 

Additional Comments:
Despite scars on their heads, my uncle Rich grew up to be a nuclear physicist
and my dad, John, a tool and die machinist. Both moved to California in the late
1940's.
I don't know what became of Good Samaritan Harry Schaffer.
Scanned copy of the article (with photo of Mr. Shaffer) available on request. My
e-mail address is above.

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