Otto Dale "Dale" White (1897-1912)

WHITE

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11

From Nevada Representative August 23, 1912 (front page)

TRAIN HITS AUTOMOBILE

One Killed at Colo and Three Escape

An automobile with four young men returning home to Colo from a thrashing job was hit by a west bound Northwestern freight train Tuesday evening about nine o'clock at the west crossing at Colo. They had waited on the [--]th side of the track for an east bound freight to pass, and when it had passed, Roy Day, the driver and owner of the automobile, started the machine across. The machine was moving slowly and not under full control when the second train was seen bearing down upon it. Both the occupants of the front seat and one in the back seat jumped clear, but the remaining occupant in the back seat, Dale White, was dozing and did not jump. The train smashed the automobile and threw White some distance. He was picked up unconscious and taken home, where he died about an hour later. The two who escaped besides Day were Will Pierce and Bert Olson.

There are gates at the crossings in Colo where the traffic is heaviest; but the west crossing is in the open and supposedly safe. Nevertheless other fatal accidents have happened there, and the conditions concurring on this occasion were of an order to draw out into danger at almost any crossing it is not the train that people are looking at that catches them but the other train on the other track. The young man killed belongs to the Jos. White family and is a brother of the young lady nurse who fell off the interurban bridge last fall at Iowa City and was unconscious for several days.

The funeral of Otto Dale White is held at Colo this afternoon. He was born March 2, 1897. The coroner's inquest resulted in a verdict blaming the railroad company for running the train through town at a high rate of speed and for not having the crossing properly guarded.

In the same issue of the paper on the page captioned COLO REPRESENTATIVE (page 7):

Boy Killed by Train

A sad accident was that--- reported elsewhere in this issue-- by which Dale White was killed in an automobile here by a Northwestern train Wednesday evening. He was the third son of Mr. and Mrs. Jos. White, and this is the third accident in the White family in less than a year. The first one was when an older sister, Miss Lula, fell from a bridge at Iowa City last fall and was unconscious for several days but finally recovered after several weeks. Then this summer a younger brother, Joe, was dragged two blocks by a cow, but fortunately escaped with only bruises and scratches and now this one the worst of all. The bereaved parents and other relatives have the heart felt sympathy of the entire community. Funeral announcement will be made later.