100 years ago in The Saratogian
Wednesday, May 16, 1917
A Saratogian reporter is ordered out of this afternoon’s coroner’s inquest into the death of Abbie Wright in a May 10 car accident, but a detailed report of the testimony appears in the next day’s paper.
Wright, the wife of John J. Wright, was killed when a car driven by Elmer E. Baker swerved into the vehicle she was riding in during a test drive on the Schuylerville Road. While the driver, Charles Welch, and the other passengers escaped with minor injuries at worst, Wright was crushed when the car tipped over on top of her as she tried to get out.
When the inquest convenes at Coroner F. J. Resseguie’s office, the coroner tells the local reporter that there’s no room for him because of the “large number of witnesses to be seated in the room.
“In dismissing the Saratogian reporter Coroner Resseguie said that owing to the absence of Elmer E. Baker and some other witnesses, a decision would not be reached today, and that he would gladly give an account of the proceedings to the press later.”
It’s unclear whether tomorrow’s report is based on the coroner’s transcript, or whether the reporter is allowed back in the office. Whatever the source, the big story is that people in the two cars give significantly different accounts of the moments before the collision.
In Baker’s absence, his side of the story is provided by two of his employees, Sylvester Billings and Michael Mezera, who were riding with him that evening. Each man testifies that he watched Baker’s speedometer closely the whole tip, and that Baker never traveled faster than 1015 miles per hour.
Mezera “did not know whether the Wright car was on the right side of the road, but he did know that the lights on the car were bright and that they were not dimmed at any time.” He “was unable to explain how the Baker car came into a position to strike the Wright car on the side, nor how, after the accident, the Baker car was round in the ditch on the left side of the road.”
Billings “did not remember anything” about the collision “until he found himself about 100 yards to the east running toward Grangerville.”
Charles Welch testifies that he estimated Baker to be traveling “about thirty miles an hour.” He saw Baker “approaching for about 1,000 feet in a zig-zag manner” and pulled over in the belief that the other driver “needed a good part of the road.” Contrary to Mezera, he claims to have switched to auxiliary lights before the collision.