Editor’s note: The Sunday Dispatch is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Information printed here first appeared in the March 2, 1947 edition and is reprinted exactly as it first appeared.
A light snowfall late lat evening coated city streets with a thin layer of ice and caused numerous motor accidents that resulted in injuries to several persons.
An unusual accident, in which several persons from one family had a narrow escape from death or serious injury occurred on Upper William street, about 6 p.m., when three cars and a Martz bus figured in a pileup collision. Two persons were slightly injured in the accident and several others badly shaken.Three Pittston men were injured in an accident on North Main Street, when their car skidded into a service pole.
They are:
Bernard Loux of 2 Brandenburg Lane, 36, admitted to Pittston Hospital with chest injuries and shock, condition fairly good.
Joseph Sheridan, 507 North Main street, 53, several lacerations of forehead, condition fairly good at Pittston Hospital.
William Morgan, 236 Broad street, Pittston, discharged after treatment for laceration of the middle finger on the left hand.
Loux was the driver of the machine that skidded into the pole near 414 North Main street shortly before 6 p.m. last evening, He and the other injured persons were taken to the hospital by William Clarke of 414 North Main street, and Fred Early, an employee of the Cyclone Machine works.
WILLIAM ST. ACCIDENT
According to a police report on the William street accident, a Martz bus driven by Walter Long, Horton street, Wilkes-Barre, skidded as it came over the peak of William street, at Defoe street, and crashed into three cars that were already involved in an earlier collision just below the hill top. The cars collided as follows: Machine driven by Samuel Marranca, of Pine street, began to skid just above the foundry; a machine driven by John Pliska of 127 Dickson street, Duryea, skidded into the rear of the Marranca vehicle and in turn a car driven by Archie Acierno of RD 2 Avoca, Old Boston, collided into the rear of the Pliska automobile.
Mrs. Sam Marranca, mother of the driver, was stepping out of the Marranca car, when the first vehicle struck and was knocked to the icy pavement. She skidded down the hill as far as the foundry. Mrs. Michael Capizzi, of Vine street, a passenger in the Marranca car, suffered a laceration of the knee when the collision occurred and later reported that she lost $50, her husband’s pay in the excitement. Others in the Marranca car were Tony Marranca and Angie Marranca, children of Mrs. Sam Marranca. The driver suffered an injury to the right hand.
The Marranca car was the most badly damaged with a broken door and two fenders smashed. The other machines had damaged fenders and grills. Office Frank Valeski of the Pittston Police force investigated.
William street residents were agog over the accident, which also involved other machines whose owners drove away without reporting. The Martz bus was not damaged and after crashing into the automobiles came to a stop at Leonard’s.
Two other automobiles were in proximity to the collision. They were driven by Philip Bianco of 264 Buster street, whose daughter-in-law, Mrs. Ray Bianco was a passenger and by Joseph Cohen of Scranton. These machines had lost traction on the way up the hill and skidded into the curb.
INJURED IN FALL
Mrs. Margaret Markowski, 63 of 87 Butler Avenue, suffered a compound fracture of the right arm when she fell on the ice while crossing Main street, near the intersection of Main and William streets. She was taken to Pittston Hospital by William Norris of Kizis and Latonick’s. Her condition at the hospital is described as good.
