Drunk Driving

This is the story of my sister as it appeared in the newspaper in my home town:

LANGSTAFF, April 20—Twenty-two-year-old Ruby Hillier, Sherbourne St., Toronto, was killed and the drivers of two cars seriously injured when their machines crashed head-on midway between the Thornhill and Langstaff stop lights on Yonge St., at 8:20 a.m. today.

Injured are Mrs. Earl Griffin of Wesley St., Newmarket, driver of the car in which the girl was killed, and F. Roberts, of North Yonge St., Richmond Hill, who was driving alone.

“Haven’t a Clue”

Roberts, northbound, “suddenly swerved right across the four-lane highway and as yet we have not a clue why,” said Provincial Con. Ron Seyffert.

He got completely over on the west side of a southbound car and sideswiped it,” the officer said. “Right behind it came another southbound car driven by Mrs. Griffin. They drove right into each other. The impact was so terrific they just came to a dead stop with bits of the cars and glass splinters flying all around them.”

James Murdoch, 25, of Newmarket, told police he was driving south when the Roberts car swung across his path. “I just managed to squeak past with a sideswipe, but the car with the women was close behind me and didn’t have a chance,” he said.

“I drove up not more than a minute and a half after the accident,” Bernie Mitchell of Harlandale Av., Lansing, said. “Two women were crumpled on the floor in the back seat of one car. Some others who had pulled up were lifting one of them out. They laid her on the road as gently as they could. She was moaning over and over: ‘Oh, I’m so cold.’ They put a car rug under her and wrapped other robes around her.

No Sign of Life

“There wasn’t a sign of life in the other woman in the back seat,” Mitchell said. “The door was hanging open and she just lay there in a heap.”

Roberts, he said, “was lying on the pavement when I came up. He was all curled up in a knot and writhing. He seemed in terrible pain. No one paid any attention to him at first, but in a couple of minutes there were hundreds of people around.”

“An odd thing was the front seat of the car the women were in,” Mitchell said. “It had somehow shot clean out of the car and was perched on the shoulder of the road right side up as if somebody had placed it there carefully to sit on.”

“It was a nice bright summer morning. It seemed terrible to see the sun shining on such a sight.

“There was a young chap, who seemed terribly upset, trying to make this young girl comfortable in the back seat but I guess she was dead. I got the idea she meant something to him. But he might just have seen the accident and been suffering shock, too,” Mitchell said.

Hit With Awful Wallop

“They must have hit with an awful wallop,” he said. “The front corners were folded right back into the bodies of the machines. The women’s car particularly was all twisted up. The dash was right back where the front seat should have been.”

Both Mrs. Griffin and Miss Hillier work for the frequency-standardization division of the Ontario Hydro commission. They were on the way from the Griffin home in Newmarket to their job in Etobicoke.

Mr. Griffin is a field auditor with the Unemployment Insurance Commission and is believed to be in Montreal.

Principal D. G. Smith of Langstaff public school, said children on their way to school witnessed the accident. A hill nearby obscures the vision of northbound cars, he said. “It’s a 50-m.p.h. zone and dangerous for children,” he said. The school is 800 yards from the scene. Two doctors, Dr. Young and another unidentified physician from the Workmen’s Compensation board hospital at Malton, happened to be passing and administered first aid. Dr. W. D. Howe was also summoned and Coroner Dr. J. P. Wilson. A splint was placed on Roberts’ fractured leg. Mrs. Griffin was suffering severe shock and was unable to give any information on her passenger. She was also given first aid by the two doctors until an ambulance arrived.

Roberts and Mrs. Griffin were taken to Toronto General Hospital.

Was From Newfoundland

Miss Hillier was from St. John’s, Newfoundland and lived on Sherbourne Street.

A member of the staff of the club went to the funeral home at Richmond Hill to identify the body, police said.

A farewell party last night was given Miss Hillier, nicknamed “Bobby,” by 11 girl friends, fellow employees at Willowdale office where she worked. She was being transferred today to the University Ave. office of the Hydro.

“She was happy and bright,” recalled Noreen Johnston, a friend who attended the party. “She was always that way.

“Mrs. Griffin attended, too. When the supper party was over, some of the girls went to a movie.” Mrs. Griffin, “Bobby” and I drove to Mrs. Griffin’s Newmarket home.”