Typed as spelled and written
- Lena Stone Criswell
THE DAILY DEMOCRAT
Sixty-Second Year - Number 159
Marlin, Texas, Thursday, October 18, 1962
Vehicle Leaves Bridge
MAN PENNED FIVE HOURS INSIDE
CAR UPSET IN WATER OF SPILLWAY
After being penned inside his upset automobile in the waterway
of the Marlin New City Lake spillway runoff area about five hours, Ray Doyle
Powers, 41, of Otto was discovered about 9:30 a.m. Thursday and rescued and
moved to a local hospital for treatment of bruises, shock and exposure.
Officers investigating the accident and at the scene included State Highway
Patrolman J. D. Phipps, Deputy Sheriffs Robert Sharp and John Curtis, and Marlin
Chief of Police Woodrow Powers who said the victim was his nephew.
According to reports the man was alone in his 1958 passenger car and was enroute
to his Otto about 4 a.m. Thursday. The automobile left the highway bridge
over the spillway discharge area on the Marlin - McClanahan road on the south,
downstream side of the bridge. It dropped some 10 feet to the bottom
and came to a halt about 100 feet from where it left the traffic way, completely
upside down in water about knee deep. A highway marker sign, "No Fishing
From Bridge" that was broken off at the point where the auto left the road, was
on the upturned part of the vehicle.
M. L. Bowers, engineer with the Joe L. Rady Company which firm is retained by
the City of Marlin for the new water main installation from the filtration plant
to the city, was occupied in the vicinity of where the accident occurred.
Sterling Jones was operating a bulldozer at the job. Both men had been
there for sometime before they observed the overturned automobile in the water
and they recalled that it was not there when they left the scene of their
operations Wednesday afternoon.
The bulldozer operator, Sterling Jones, waded out to the wrecked vehicle and
discovered Mr. Powers sitting inside the upside-down automobile with his head
above the water. Jones said Powers told him that he was alright but to get
him out.
An Adams Funeral ambulance was called and the driver, James Wilkey, and Jones
removed the shivering accident victim and he was taken to a local hospital.
His injuries were reported to have been a cut on his elbow and bruises about one
eye, other than his chilled and severe exposure condition.
Jones said that the impulse that caused him to make a close investigation of the
upturned automobile was that he noticed one of the turn signal lights flashing.
He also noted that the light at the rear number plate was burning.
Mr. Powers was unable to explain what might have caused the accident other than
that he may have been passing another vehicle. He did not appear to be
aware of the lapse of time he had been in the water, but that when he recovered
from the shock of the accident it was daylight. He is a railroad
brakeman and employed by the Missouri Pacific railroad from the Mart terminal.
**********
Copyright permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing
by
The Democrat, Marlin, Falls County, Texas.
