The Evening World

RUNAWAY AUTO TRUCK
CRASHES INTO SALOON.

Plunges Through Plate Glass Front and Knocks Patrons Right and Left.

It was no joy ride that sent the heavy auto truck owned by the New York City Dressed Beef Company coasting down a hill on Hopkinson avenue, Brooklyn, to-day at the rate of fifty miles an hour. It was the snapping of a king bolt. Then Chauffeur Louis Lindner lost control of the big machine.

Down he whizzed for three blocks, holding on to the steering wheel. As the runaway neared Marion street it swerved to the right and ran up on the sidewalk. It didn't stop there, but made a bee-line for the Marion cafe, kept by Louis Kelet. Through the glass plate front it plowed, smashing glass, snapping woodwork and tearing out bricks. Business was good in the cafe at the time, but not after that. The lineup at the bar was broken and men retreated in disorderly fashion.

Glass was sent flying in all directions and men tumbled over one another in their efforts to get out of the way.

William J. Laudwig, forty-five years old and living at No. 1912 Atlantic avenue, was struck a glancing blow by the machine and hurled ten feet. His shoulder was sprained and he was cut about the head and face.

They took the chauffeur to the Bushwick Hospital with a broken arm and lacerations of the scalp and his face was also badly cut. The damage to the auto truck, it is said, will not exceed $150. The damage to the saloon is $2,500.

The Building Department is now having the building examined to see whether it is safe to continue business there.