1956: Man Survives Spectacular Crash

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A high speed race took place in the calm city of Seattle. The cops set out road spikes to try to stop the race so no one would get hurt, but it backfired when one of the cars ran into the spikes. After the car hit them, it skidded out and flipped and flew 50 feet until it hit a stop sign. Two fire trucks and three doctors all rushed to the scene to save the man in the car. Captain Sidney Hildahl of Station 28 lifted the car off the injured man, and the docs rushed him to the hospital. Then the gas tank exploded. “I owe that firefighter my life,” said the man in the car.

-- Ronny VanderVeen

Evidence:

Sidney Hildahl is listed in the Polk's Directory at 4350 S. Bennett from 1932-1943, and at 4435 S. Dawson Street from 1948 - 1953.

Hildahl was a fireman, and his Seattle Fire Department personnel file is available at the Municipal Archives. The file includes several Applications for Disability Allowance, from injuries sustained in the line of duty over his three-decade career with the Department. This one caught our eye: "Vein stripping, was a continuation of my leg trouble, 1 year ago. Hernia was caused by lifting a car with a man trapped inside of it at 9814 Rainier Ave Single 633 last week in Jan. '56."

 

We weren't sure we wanted to know too much more about vein stripping -- it's an operation to treat varicose veins, it turns out -- but the part about lifting a car with a man trapped inside it sure caught our attention. We tried to find an article about this dramatic incident in the local newspapers, but unfortunately they didn't cover that kind of thing at the time -- the South District Journal of the 1950s mostly included notices of PTA meetings, pictures of beauty queens, and bits of local gossip ("The Parkers are back from their vacation in Europe"). It was a good lesson in how editorship and reporting resources can shape the picture presented by an "objective" source of news. 

Interestingly, when we got to the 1970s the front page of the South District Journal featured a horrific car crash photo almost every week. Were there way more car crashes all of a sudden? Different editorial priorities? Enough money to hire a cameraman to run around in the middle of the night taking pictures of traffic accidents? We weren't sure, but we were glad to have a "spectacular crash" photo to illustrate Ronny's story -- even if it is a little anachronistic. .