"Mister, You Hit a Man!"

We know Charles Chester drove his car a whole lot. We also have some sense of how unsettled and dangerous driving was in the early part of the 20th century, with traffic poorly regulated, roads unmarked and often unlit, safety equipment primitive (where it existed at all), and people's awareness lagging behind the reality of the speed and potential destructiveness of cars.

So it's not surprising that the odds finally caught up with Charles in October 1916.

He and his wife, Constance, were driving home from Chicago on the evening of October 21. By the time they reached Hammond, darkness had fallen. As Charles drove south on Calumet Avenue, nearing the Hammond city limits, a northbound car approached; he steered his car toward the side, giving the other room to pass. In spite of the blinding headlights of the northbound car, Charles noticed a man in the street, so he braked and tooted his horn. The man got out of the way, and Charles drove on slowly.

Then he heard shouting behind him: "Mister, you hit a man!" The man he'd just passed was running after him, yelling. Confused, Charles stopped the car and got out.

To his shock, he had indeed hit a man. So dark was the street and so blinding the headlights of the approaching car that he had not even seen two other men walking in the street ahead of the first. Now one of them lay on the sidewalk, apparently dead.

The Hammond police came on the scene. They confirmed that the man who'd been struck — his surname was Domulsky — was indeed dead. But two young men standing outside a nearby garage, who had seen the accident, said Charles' car could not have killed Mr. Domulsky — it had been going too slowly. Police reached the preliminary conclusion that while Charles may have knocked Mr. Domulsky down, the cause of death was Mr. Domulsky's striking his head on the sidewalk when he fell. And in light of the additional facts that the victim and his companion had been drinking, had walked in the street instead of on the sidewalk, and "had paid no attention to the approaching machines on a public street," the police decided that Charles was likely not to blame in the accident. They let him and Constance go on their way.

Four days later the Lake County Coroner held an inquest on the matter and reached the same conclusion. So Charles suffered no legal consequences. He likely suffered emotional consequences, and Constance as well — "They greatly deplore the accident," said the Gazette.


Sources:
♦ "Auto Kills Man at Hammond." Hobart Gazette 27 Oct. 1916.
♦ "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 26 Oct. 1916.