1537 Meets Ford
Bill Whyte Photo, Steve Crise Collection
A baby-blue 1955 Ford meets an untimely demise at the prow of northbound Metropolitan Transit Authority (ex-Pacific Electric) blimp interurban no. 1537 at the intersection of American Avenue and 16th Street in Long Beach on January 11, 1959, around 330PM. Read the court case here (thank you, Gary Starre!).
Modified based on additional information
Bill Whyte Photo, Steve Crise Collection
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This collision was blamed on the interurban operator, and resulted in a published appeal to the California Appellate courts. See:
http://law.justia.com/cases/california/calapp2d/185/335.html
– Thank you, Gary – fantastic find! – Ed.
HI Gary – Thanks so much for your research! It really adds a whole other dimension to the photograph that was lost to us when Bill passed away. He never told me about the circumstance for the photo being made – you have to wonder – did he just happen upon it or was he called on to photograph it for a newspaper or perhaps even the PE.
Thanks to Gary Starre, we know know the rest of the story.
Below is a brief excerpt from the law.justa.com site. For the rest of the story please visit http://law.justia.com/cases/california/calapp2d/185/335.html.
On Sunday, January 11, 1959, about 3:30 p.m., Mrs. Ransdell was driving her 1955 Ford automobile in a southerly direction on American, and Mr. Rummans was operating an interurban electric car in a northerly direction on American. Mrs. Hall was in the automobile. While Mrs. Ransdell was approaching the intersection of American and 16th, she was in the southbound traffic lane which was next to the double white line. At that intersection she turned the automobile to the left intending to go east onto 16th. The automobile stopped when its front wheels were between the rails of the northbound track (track east of the center of American). While the automobile was stopped there, the electric car struck the right front side of the automobile and pushed or dragged it 115 feet north. The place in the intersection where the collision occurred was approximately 12 feet south of the north curbline of 16th Street and approximately 5 feet east of the center of American.