Show a mul Ui t e CJ 4 t 1945 a r 1 1 tit 9 By PAUL JONES f Public Information National Safety Council BIG things happened in 1945 The war ended The atom bomb busted Taxes began to come down And Mr Bonner was shot by a duck Mr Bonner is of course Mr Stanley J. J Bonner of Houston Tex Tex- Texas as as every duck now knows On Ona a fine October day he grabbed his trusty automatic pistol and ventured ven ven- ventured ventured into the back yard to shoot a couple of domestic ducks Duck No 1 fell at the first shot But Duck No 2 a more aggressive type leaped at Mr Bonner jarred his arm and caused the gun to go off The bullet hit Mr Bonner in the knee The duck Still alive and sassy Wacky Sure But no wackier than a lot of other freak accidents that happened in 1945 For a a round round- roundup up by the National Safety Council Counci reveals that come war come peace people go right on having the darn darn- edest things happen to them To wit Mrs Edward Comfort of Brook Brook- Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn lyn was driving through Virginia her old month baby riding happily beside her in a basket strapped to the seat of the car So far as Mrs Comfort knew there were no hard feelings between her and the baby V J But the child suddenly stopped con con- contentedly contentedly contentedly drinking milk out of a nursing bottle swung the bottle lust lust- lustily lustily ily fly and conked Mrs Comfort neatly on the head Dazed she let go the wheel and the car overturned in a ditch Neither mother nor baby was hurt Headed Hard Fellow Not so allergic to a thump on the head is Charles Anderson a hardy resident of Los Angeles Angeles- Mr Ander Ander- Anderson son in fact has reason to re- re regard re re- regard regard gard himself as practically inde inde- He was repairing a wall one day when a concrete block fell from a story fourth-story scaffold and hit him smack on the head He reeled into the street just in time to be struck down by Policeman Jess I I Haenel's motorcycle He recovered satisfactorily from both accidents And Mrs Dorothy Jensenius was walking in Chicago's loop one day when lo to and behold a bucket came hurtling down and hit her Q a as aIt s It had been dropped by a dismayed window washer seven stories up A shoulder injury to Mrs Jensenius and a dent in the bucket comprised the damage In Toledo Mrs Margaret Cooks Cook's car blew a tire at a railroad crossing cross cross- crossing crossing ing and careened down the tracks toward an approaching freight train The auto struck a signal switch and threw a red block against the train automatically stopping it Stick of Wood Goes Boom I When a pin phi in her washing ma ma- machine machine machine chine broke off oft Mrs Axel Soder of Makinen Minn looked around the house for a substitute pin and finally final final- finally ly found something she thought was Just the thing She sawed off the end of it and started to hammer it into the machine She might have done it too if i the substitute pin hadn't exploded and ond blown her clear 1 across the room She had selected a stick of dynamite Hits Right Post Taxi-driver Taxi Ethel Sheffield's cab skidded Into a lamp post in hi Regina Saskatchewan one zero below night last January She was knocked unconscious and might have frozen to death if a fire alarm box on the lamp post hadn't been set off by the crash bringing firemen to the rescue Every returning GI is mighty glad to see the family again but few are so vociferous in their greet greet- greetings greetings 3 r r r X l 1 ings as was Soldier Frank Chlan Chian of Baltimore He gave his mom a hug so big it snapped several of her ribs Its It's odd enough perhaps when a afire afire afire fire starts itself itse and then puts itself itse out When it happens twice the same way you begin to wonder But once in Utica N. N Y and again In Dark Harbor Maine the suns sun's rays passing through a bottle of water in a truck set fire to the floor of each truck only to have the heat of the fire break the bottle and the water put out the flames Fire in Fire Station Probably the most embarrassed firemen in the country were the members of the volunteer department depart depart- department department ment of Columbus Manor Ill the night an exploding gasoline tank in ina ina a wagon set fire to the fire station Unable to get their own equipment out of the station to fight the flames the Columbus Manor laddies had to look on glumly while firemen from nearby towns did the job i A lot of people stick their necks out in various ways but not so spec spec- spectacularly spectacularly as did Virginia Triplett an elevator operator in St. St Paul Miss Triplett was leaning her head out out- outside outside side the elevator on the first floor when the automatic doors closed Passersby tugged at the doors by hand until they could be opened by mechanics Doorframes Too Low Out In Hollywood where anything six- six can happen Sunset Carson foot-five foot cowboy movie actor went to the studio hospital for an aspirin to help his headache Coming out he struck his head against the door doorframe doorframe doorframe frame keeled over unconscious and had to have four stitches taken in his scalp l y t 1 m. m Whether it was a suicide pact or 01 o ojust just an accident no one will ever know But when Miss Bette Boren of Marinette Wis returned home one day last March she found the family's two dogs on the floor overcome by gas They had in some manner turned on the stove They were revived and harent haven't tried it again Every year someone lets a train pass over him without serious re re- In 1945 it was Jesse of Denver Mr did it the hard way by first having himself himsel an auto accident This threw him through the roof of his car and land land- landed landed landed ed him on his back in fn the middle of the track just as the train came along Mr lay la quietly and securely until the engine and long string of freight cars had roared over him then found he had broken a leg leg leg-in in the auto accident No year would be complete com lete of falling safe safe- course without someone ly out of a third-story third window onto a cement sidewalk The 1945 out fall-out girl was Beverly Kay Schwartz 20 months old of Maywood Ill who escaped with a slight head injury Just to be different a Chicago baby took his mother along with him when he went for a two-story two plunge to the street The year-old year child slipped from a porch railing His mother Mrs Audrey Hudson grabbed for him got him lost her balance and mother and son fell together Neither was seriously hurt Most farsighted plunger of the year was James Hearn of Seattle l who fell three floors down an air shaft to land cozily in an easy chair Ambulance Throws Her Out As Mrs Clara Wagner accompanied a sick friend to a Chicago hos hos- hospital hospital hospital pital the ambulance in which they were riding turned a corner so sharply that the rear door flew open I and Mrs Wagner was catapulted into the street She was returned to the ambulance and continued the journey journey journey-as as a patient Just to prove that America hasn't a corner on freak accidents a wind windstorm windstorm windstorm storm in North Adelaide Australia scared a deliveryman's horse into running away but also blew the de- de deliveryman deliveryman liveryman ahead of the horse in time to stop it Bobcats dont don't frighten Mrs Donaldson Don Don- Donaldson Donaldson of Breen Colo When she came suddenly upon a big one in her turkey yard she fearlessly seized a club and attacked it The bobcats bobcat's hide now hangs in the kitchen Mrs Donaldson did not suffer a single scratch An ordinary field mouse ran up the steering wheel of an automo automo- automobile automobile automobile bile driven by Hollis Lee Randolph of Topanga Calif Mr Randolph who couldn't have been more star star- startled startled startled had it been an elephant lost control of his car ran it into a ditch and turned it over Neither he nor the mouse was hurt A Liberty ship crashed into to a abridge a abridge abridge bridge in Boston harbor knocking a foot 90 section of the bridge into the water Although the structure carries elevated lines automobile traffic and foot ways there were no trains no autos and no pedestrians on it at the time of the accident Yet it was midday when traffic is usually heavy No one was hurt on the ship either 2 0 One of lifes life's little mysteries to doctors and economists came alien when I old month Larry Lingle of Har- Har Harrisburg Harrisburg Harrisburg I Pa swallowed a nickel I and coughed up a penny Henry Hale slipped on the ice in Chicago A policeman asked him himi It if i he was hurt I broke my leg replied Henry calmly Take me home The police did so then asked so so- solicitously solicitously solicitously What doctor do you want Doctor Hale snorted What I want is a carpenter Yes it was a wooden leg v r And just as a reminder of how tough things really were during d ring the th war Michael Babich walked up to toa toa toa a fellow worker in Newark N. N J. J during the height of the tobacco shortage facetiously asked for a cig cigarette cig- cig cigarette cigarette arette got one and fainted I |