Tragedy near Watts: A wagon carrying eight children collided with an electric car, leaving four dead and six injured.
Five Killed When Car Hits Wagon
July 6, 1908. — Four children and the father of two of them are dead and six persons are injured as the result of a collision between a farm wagon containing eight children, two men and one woman, and an electric car on the Santa Ana line near Watts [California], about ten miles from this city.
The dead:
- Joseph Oller, aged 46.
- Joseph Oller, Jr., aged 14.
- H. Oller, aged 8, all of Linnwood, near Watts.
- Elsie Kuehner, aged 9.
- Theordore Kuehner, aged 7, both of 404 North Vignes Street, Los Angeles.
The injured are Peter Kuehner, 45, left leg fractured; Annie 12, Marie 10, and Bertha Oller, aged 8, bruised not seriously; Alexia Kuehner, 11, left leg broken, and Mrs. Antonia Kuehner, slightly bruised.
The Kuehner family had been spending the day with the Ollers, and the latter family had accompanied the Kuehners to the Santa Ana line, where they were to take the car to this city.
When nearing the line, Joseph Oller, who was driving, saw the car coming and tried to cross in front of it. The car hit the wagon squarely and some of the occupants went under the car, while others were thrown clear of the wreckage.
Mrs. Kuehner saw the car and jumped, escaping with slight injuries. Up to a late hour, she did not know that two of her children are dead.
Source: The Cimarron citizen. (Cimarron, N.M.), 08 July 1908.
