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Pages of History
August 1946 was an exceptionally bad month for traffic accidents.
Five were reported, including one that resulted in three fatalities. The first accident occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 6, when a 1937 Buick driven by Mrs. Karl Rueckert of Illinois rammed into the rear of a poultry truck driven by Morris Ellis of Allen. The accident occurred three miles north and two and one-half miles east of Laurel on Highway 20.
The truck and car were both traveling west with the truck in the lead. As Ellis approached the top of a hill, he noticed another truck stalled in the eastbound lane. Eliis began stopping his truck to see if the driver needed help. The Rueckert car, which was following close behind, slammed into the rear of the Ellis truck. The five people in the Rueckert car were treated by Dr. Carroll and then taken to a Sioux City hospital. Ellis was treated by Dr. Carroll and released.
The second accident occurred on Monday, Aug. 19. The four-vehicle accident occurred on Highway 20 north of town. E.J. Thomas of Laurel, who was traveling south in a 1941 Chevrolet, pulled into the left lane in order to turn east onto a county road two miles north of town. Following closely behind Thomas was a truck driven by W.T. May of Valentine. May blasted his horn and started to pass the Thomas car on the right. Startled by the sound of the horn, Thomas pulled back to the center of the road and was hit by the truck.
Shortly after the collision, a 1939 Dodge coupe driven by R.C. Jarvis of Brewerton, NY, pulling a two-wheeled house trailer, slowed to go around the accident. As it did, a Dodge truck loaded with cement and driven by C.A. Middleton crashed into the back of the trailer. The impact pushed the car and trailer more than 140 feet down the highway until the car ran into the ditch. The trailer swung sideways and the truck ran completely through it. Furniture, clothing and dishes were scattered in all directions. Jarvis, who was headed for Seattle with his wife and two small children lost most of their possessions. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. An investigation by the highway patrol determined the Middleton truck had faulty brakes.
Another accident occurred on Highway 20 three and one-half miles west of Laurel. In this accident, a truck driven by L.J. Ertle of Newcastle, WY, left the highway, flew over a barbed wire fence, and landed in a cornfield nearly 70 feet from the highway. A man who stopped at the scene of the wreck told patrolman Fay Robeson that the truck had passed him near Plainview going between 75 and 80 miles an hour. Ertle was charged with driving while intoxicated and fined $35 plus $4 costs. The same morning, a 1935 International truck loaded with scrap iron rolled over in a ditch a mile and a half north of Laurel.
The driver, 16-year-old Kenneth Olson of South Sioux City, said he did not know what happened but the truck suddenly veered to the right, left the road, and rolled over into the ditch. The truck which was owned by a Sioux City man was unregistered and 1800 pounds overweight. The 16-year-old driver did not have a license.
The worst accident occurred about 9 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, August 22. Three young people were fatally injured and five others seriously hurt when the car in which they were riding crashed head on into a loaded stock truck on Highway 20 two miles north and four miles east of Laurel.
The car in which the seven young people were riding was enroute to Coleridge and Hartington from Sioux City when it collided with the truck driven by Allan Wickett of Laurel.
Wickett, who was on the way to Sioux City with a load of cattle, told authorities that both vehicles were on the proper side of the road, and both had dimmed their headlights. But just before they met, the car swerved into the path of Wickett’s truck and collided head on with such force that the cattle were thrown over the top of the cab and onto the top of the car.
Dr. R.P. Carroll, who was called to the scene, said he had never seen so many people so badly hurt in one wreck.
Ambulances from Hartington, Plainview, Osmond, Wayne, and South Sioux City transported the injured to hospitals in Sioux City where three of the seven died. They were Elizabeth Suing, 20, of Hartington; Frances Cisney, 16, of Coleridge; and Carl Ludwig, 22, of Sioux City.
Catherine Suing, 20, a twin sister of Elizabeth, suffered a broken leg and facial injuries. Donald Cisney, 23, of Coleridge, also suffered a broken leg and cuts and bruises. Larell Kock, 21, of Coleridge, suffered head injuries. Donald Kalin, 21, of Coleridge, received two broken legs and severe head and facial injuries.
The Suing twins and the Cisney girl were employed in Sioux City. Miss Cisney’s uncle, Donald Cisney, and the others had gone to Sioux City to bring the girls home to Coleridge and Hartington Catherine Suing, Elizabeth’s twin sister, later married Larell Kock. She died in 2013. He died in 2014. Both are buried in Des Moines, Iowa.
Donald Cisney married Madeline (or Magdalen) Suing Dettmer, the widowed sister of Catherine and Elizabeth Suing. She died in Widomar, CA, in 2000. He died in 2009.
Donald Kalin died in Seattle, WA, in 1989. Allan Wickett was cleared of responsibility for the accident. It was thought that a mechanical failure or possibly a blown tire had caused the car to veer into the path of Wickett’s truck. Wickett died in 1972 and is buried in Laurel.
Roger Tryon is a Laurel native and a retired teacher. He has been writing a weekly history column for the Cedar County News
