PETERS, Polly Suzanne - Died 1972

PETERS, LAWSON

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 3/6/2013 at 08:06:58

Two Teenagers Die In Two-Car Crash Near Birmingham Last Sat.
**Handwritten under heading: 6 Apr 1972

Two teenaged Fairfield girls were killed and three other teenagers were injured in a grinding two-car crash on Highway 1, 100 yards north of the Birmingham city limits about 11:20 p.m. Saturday.

The dead are Cindy Lou Lawson, 18, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lawson, and Polly Suzanne Peters, 17, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Foshier. Both were Fairfield high school students .

Miss Lawson was driving a small foreign car in which three other teenaged girls were riding when it collided with a car driven by Robert Kirby Poole, 18, of Stockport.

Others in the Lawson car were Jane Ahrens, 16, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Ahrens, listed in serious condition at University Hospitals, Iowa City with head injuries and burn to her hands and legs, and Betty Kay Smith, 15, a patient in Ottumwa Hospital with compound fractures of both legs and head cuts. She is the daughter of Mrs. Betty Kay Smith. All are from Fairfield.

The girls were apparently returning to Fairfield from Keosauqua where they had attended a dance at the Roberts Memorial Building.

Poole, who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Poole of Stockport, is expected to be released soon from the Jefferson County Hospital, Fairfield where he had been treated for throat, chest and jaw injuries.

His passenger, Penny Ross, 18, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Ross of Bonaparte, was examined at Van Buren County Memorial Hospital in Keosauqua and released.

The Iowa Highway Patrol said Poole, headed south, swerved across the center line to avoid two cars parked along the shoulder on the west side of the highway. He veered into the path of the northbound Lawson car.

The parked automobiles belonged to Darrell Rains and David Acheson, Birmingham teenagers. The Highway Patrol said Rains stopped to change a flat tire, and Acheson pulled in behind him and had his four-way flasher lights on.

Poole told authorities he saw no trace of the Lawson car as swerved out around the parked car.

The small car burst into flames on impact and the two dead girls were pinned inside. Authorities said they believed the girls were killed outright in the crash. Both cars were demolished.

The deaths are Van Buren County's first traffic fatalities of 1972. An investigation of the accident is being continued by the Iowa Highway Patrol and the Van Buren County sherriff's office.

**I extensively research the LAWSON lineage.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book, Page 197, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA