Robert Hemingray suffers in pain from auto accident

SUFFERS IN RAIN WHILE

AMBULANCE IS DELAYED

VICTIM OF AUCTO ACCIDENT

WAITS MORE THAN AN HOUR.

CALMY SMOKES CIGARETTE

Robert Hemengray [sic] Hemingray, who says his home is in Pittsburg, was forced to lie on the sidewalk for more than an hour last night, waiting for an ambulance after he had been seriously injured in an auto accident.

When, he recovered consciousness he asked for a cigarette and calmly smoked until four policemen succeeded in getting an ambulance to take him to the city hospital.

Hemengray [sic] Hemingray was knocked from a cab he was driving, at Meridian and Ohio streets, when it was struck by an auto driven by Don T. Fausset, 1218 East Tenth street.

Auto Skids Into Cab.

Hemengray [sic] Hemingray was driving the cab east in Ohio street, and Fausset was driving the automobile south in Meridian street when the accident occurred. According to Faus­set he checked speed at the north side of Ohio street to see whether any street cars were approaching, and then started across the street. Suddenly, he said, he saw the cab, and although he applied the brakes of his car it skidded and struck the cab at the rear axle. The jar threw Hemengray [sic] Hemingray from his seat to the pavement, and he was assisted to the sidewalk by passerby and placed on a blanket taken from his cab. A rubber laprobe was placed over him to keep the rain off as much as possible.

Eight Miles an Hour.

Fausset said he was not driving his car more than eight miles an hour, and that the rain on his wind shield had prevented him from seeing the cab sooner. Fausset applied the brakes so strongly that the automobile was turned directly opposite from the direction in which it was going and thrown on the sidewalk.

Patrolmen Johnson and Tomlinson, who reached the scene of the accident shortly after it occurred, said they were about to call the city dispensary ambulance when some one in the crowd told them that it had already been summoned. When bicyclemen Todd and Englebright reached the corner, fifteen minutes later, and found that the ambulance was not there, Todd called the dispensary and was told that they had not been notified. Twenty minutes elapsed and when the ambulance failed to arrive the bicyclemen called the dispensary again. This time they failed to get any response and although they called repeatedly for ten minutes they were unable to get an answer. Finally the city hospital was appealed to, and about 2 o'clock a hospital ambulance reached the corner. Hemengray [sic] Hemingray was hurried to the hospital, where it was found he had a fracture of the skull and a scalp wound.

Explanation of Delay.

According to Taylor Jackson, colored ambulance driver at the city dispensary, he was called about ten minutes after 1 o'clock and notified of the accident. He says he awoke Dr. Fred Jackson, ambulance surgeon, and then went to the barn where he started to hitch the team of horses to the ambulance wagon. Jackson said that a few minutes later one of the horses became frightened and jumped, breaking part of the harness. The driver said that he attempted to repair the harness, and being unable to do so, returned to the dispensary and told Dr. Jackson. The physician said he then notified the city hospital a few minutes before 1 o'clock that the dispensary ambulance was out of service and could not make the run.

According to Harry Ridgeway, night clerk at the city hospital, the call was received at 1:40 o'clock and the ambulance was immediately sent on the run.

The record at the hospital shows the ambulance returned at 2:10.

The electric city dispensary ambulance was put out of service yesterday afternoon, according to Jackson, when it broke down while on the way to the city hospital with a patient. Temporary repairs were made by Bert Marshall, the driver, and the hospital was reached some time later.

The fender and the headlights of the automobile that Fausset was driving were damaged. The machine belongs to the Horace F. Wood garage.