Kate's Notes: Apparently someone at the editor's desk neglected to proofread this article before it went to press, as the spelling of sunames varies throughout. Also, though the headline of the article refers to Mrs. Alvae Gilliland, in the body of the report she is referred to as Alva Gilliland.
   Not to make light of anyone's misfortune but as I contined to read the account of this mishap, the more it read like a script for a slapstick short film.

From The Charleroi Mail (Charleroi, Pennsylvania) June 19, 1935 

WOMAN’S CONDITION
IS SERIOUS
__________

Mrs. Alvea Gilleland, Five 
Others Hurt In Auto
Collision
__________

   The condition of Mrs. Alva Gilleland, of Charleroi, is reported serious, following the collision at Eighty-Four last night. She is suffering from shock, cuts and bruises and probable internal injuries. She is in Washington Hospital.
   Only one of the victims of the accident, John Szakel, has been discharged from the Washington Hospital.
__________

   One person was critically injured and five others hurt in a three-car collision on route 31, three miles east of Washington, late yesterday afternoon.
   Later when one of the wrecked machines was being towed to a Washington garage, an employee of the garage, riding on a running board, was slightly injured when the truck struck a pole in East Beau street.
    Mrs. Emma Gilliland, 60, wife of Alva J. Gilliland, of 507 Crest avenue, Charleroi, was believed to be the most seriously injured. She suffered a fracture of the left wrist, a possible collarbone fracture and lacerations over most of her body. Suffering badly from shock, also, her condition at the Washington Hospital last night was regarded as critical.
   Her husband, 65, suffered lacerations on the head and arms and body bruises and another occupant of the Gilliland machine, Cora Belle Gilliland, [50], of Los Angeles, Cal., a sister of the driver, suffered lacerations on the right leg and a compound fractures of a finger.
   George Hurst, 30, of  Eighty Four, operator of another of the machines, received lacerations on the forehead and a six-year-old son, George Robert Hirst, suffered a fracture of the jaw and right arm. John Szakel, 16, riding with them was discharged from the Washington hospital after treatment for cuts about his face.
   None of the four persons, three women and a man, riding in the third machine operated by Mary L. Evans, 58, of Gahanna, O., was injured.
   According to State Patrolman A. J. Naddeo, who investigated, the Evans car was traveling east on the highway and Hirst was following about 400 feet in the rear. Gilliland was traveling west.
   On a slight grade, near the W. D. Phillips home, the Gilliland and Evans machines sideswiped, after which Gilliland apparently lost control of his careening automobile.
   His car smashed almost headon into the Hirst car, which was close behind the Ohio machine when the first crash occurred. The Evans’ machine ran into a ditch at the side of the highway and nearly overturned.
   Two ambulances took the injured to the hospital in Washington. With the exception of Mrs. Gilliland and Cora Gilliland, both of whom were the most seriously injured, the others were regarded as recovering satisfactorily last night.
   Patsy Aloia, 18, of Houston street riding on the running board of the tow truck that was taking one of the machines to a Washington garage, was slightly injured when the truck struck a pole in East Beau street when a passing automobile was reported to have forced the truck to the curb.
   Aloia was treated for lacerations at the hospital and discharged. The crash into the pole snapped electric wires, carrying 2,200 volts and a guard was established along the street to protect travelers from the live wire.

-- transcription by Kate Maynard, 2010