Crash To Death

E. Sisson Drives Car Off Tammany Road at Speed.

Two Seriously Hurt

Wilbur Ankeny and Roy Dicus Suffer Internal Injuries - In St. Joseph's Hospital - O. Livengood Unhurt.

While returning from digging the grave of another, in preparation for a burial to take place at 1 o'clock this afternoon, Elmer Sisson, 53, was killed, and Wilbur Ankeny, 21, and Roy Dicus, 30, were badly injured when the automobile in which they were riding went over a grade on the Lewiston-Waha road at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, just at a point near the Lafe Mounce ranch in Tammany. Otto Livengood, the fourth member of the party, miraculously escaped injury. The body of Mr. Sisson is at the Vassar undertaking parlor and Ankeny and Dicus are patients at St. Joseph's hospital, where they were taken by Dr. W. P. Habel, who was called to the scene of the accident.

From statements attributed to the survivors the accident was caused through fast driving, one of the men at the hospital telling the ambulance attendants that the care, which was being driven by Sisson, was traveling at the rate of from 50 to 60 miles an hour, while Mr. Livengood, who proceeded to his home at Sweetwater, also made a similar statement to Phil Crawford of that place.

When the first news of the accident reached Lewiston it was to the effect that two or more had been killed, and two ambulances were rushed to the scene.

The four men figuring in the accident had left their homes at Sweetwater early in the day and proceeded to the burial ground at Tammany to dig a grave in which to bury Henry P. Crawford, a pioneer resident of the Tammany country, whose death occurred at 11 o'clock Friday night at his home in Sweetwater.

Their work finished, they were en route to their homes. Just as they drove past the northwest corner of the Mounce ranch, north of the Tammany schoolhouse, a turn in the road was encountered. At this point the main Lewiston-Waha road has a branch road serving the people of Sweetwater and other towns of that section, while on the opposite side of the road there is a turn in the road of about 200 yards in length that leads to Lewiston. Evidently the great speed at which Mr. Sisson was traveling would not permit him to turn safely into the road leading to Lewiston, although it would have been possible, had his presence of mind asserted itself, to turn to the opposite side of the road and crash through a fence, allowing the car to remain on level land and probably permitting the four occupants to escape with but slight injury. In any event, the driver of the car noticed the danger in which he was placed, for he tried to turn off into the jag in the road, but in doing so his car went over the bank at full speed. Sisson managed to retain his hold on the steering wheel and the slope shows where the car traveled for a distance of about 100 feet before turning over.

Victim Strikes Stone.

All of the men were thrown clear of the car when the final crash came, according to residents of the Mounce place, who were among the first to reach the scene. Mr. Sisson plunged headlong to the earth, his head striking a rock, causing a fearful gash to be cut from the outer edge of the right eye through the temple, his forehead also being badly crushed. He lived for possible three-quarters of an hour, breathing his last while in the ambulance en route to the hospital. He suffered a compound fracture of the skull.

The injuries sustained by Roy Dicus, as reported by Dr. O. C. Carssow, who was called in by Dr. Habel, consisted of a dislocation of the left shoulder blade and others internally dangerous. Ankeny had his left shoulder blade dislocated and suffered minor bruises and skin contusions in addition. At the hospital last night it was reported that both were resting easy.

Mr. Sisson was a brother of Mrs. W. H. Ankeny, wife of a well known resident of Sweetwater, and prior to his locating at that point, which took place in October last year, he was a resident of Kootenai, Bonner county, where he was engaged in the lumbering business. At Sweetwater Mr. Sisson had not been engaged in any special occupation. He was a man of excellent character and highly respected by the people of the section in which he was located. He was unmarried.

Wilbur Ankeny is a son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Ankeny and therefore a nephew of the man who was killed. He is engaged in farming at Sweetwater, as is Roy Dicus.