BOY AFRAID OF AUTOS
KILLED BY BIG CAR.
Frank Smoot, 15, Crushed Under
Overturned Delivery Van --
Had Premonition of
Disaster.
FRANK SMOOT.
Frank Limpus, who was driving, works for the company which sold the car and was teaching a man to drive it.
They were just finished making deliveries and were returning when the accident happened. Limpus and J. J. Emmert, who had charge of the deliveries, were on the seat and young Smoot was seated on Emmert's lap.
"We were going north on Baltimore about six or seven miles an hour," said Limpus. "It was rather dark and we did not see the pile of bricks until we were almost upon them. I tried to pull away from them, but did not have time and our right front wheel hit with a crash. The bricks were piled about seven feet high and when the car, which weighs about 3,500 pounds, struck them the corner of the pile was torn away. The force of the collision did not stop us and the wheels on the right side ran up onto the pile until the car was overbalanced and turned over. The three of us were thrown out, young Smoot falling beneath the heavy car, the weight of which crushed his life out, almost instantly.
"It all happened so quickly that we did not realize he was hurt until Emmert and I had picked ourselves up. I saw that the boy was caught under the car and tried to remove him, but was not able to lift the car off him. A crowd of people came up and several men helped me lift the car and we pulled him out."
Dr. Harry Czarlinsky, deputy coroner, had the body removed to the Freeman & Marshall undertaking rooms.
The victim of the accident was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Smoot, 19 East Thirty-first street. Mrs. Smoot was at home preparing supper for her son when she was informed of his death.
"I knew something would happen," she said. "He did not want to go to work this morning. He is not used to automobiles and does not like to be around them. Just before he left for work he said to me, "Mamma, I expect John Taylor's will be getting air ships before long and deliver the packages with a long rope down the chimneys."
Mr. Taylor was notified of the accident and called at the undertaking rooms last night.
The dead boy had had been working for the dry goods company for the past year. He was born in Chicago, but was brought to Kansas City when he was six months old. The father of the boy runs a dress goods sample room at 406 East Eleventh street. Besides the parents, two little sisters, Addie and Edna, survive.
No one responsible for the bricks being piled in the street could be located last night, but several persons who live in the immediate neighborhood of the accident assert that no warning lights were placed.
