Coshocton(Ohio)Tribune September 3, 1943
DRIVER KILLED AS BRIDGE COLLAPSES
Tractor Falls Thru Beaver Run Span
Alfred E. Hardesty, 40, Fresno, an employe of the county for the past
10
years, was killed this morning when a tractor he was driving crashed
thru
the Beaver Run bridge near Warsaw at about 8 o'clock.
Mr. Hardesty suffered a crushed chest and died instantly.
W. L. Browning, 30, of Cooperdale, who was with Mr. Hardesty, jumped
to
safety, escaping without serious injury.
The accident was immediately reported to Kenneth Kinkley, county-engineer,
who went to the scene.
He stated that the tractor driven by Mr. Hardesty moved on the bridge,
hitched to a grader by an eight-foot steel tongue. Apparently the stones
of
the north abutment of the bridge, which is 22-feet in length, let loose
and
the tractor crashed into the cree bed. Mr. Hardesty, he stated, had
either
dumped and struck the steel tongue or was struck by the tongue at the
time
of the crash.
Mr. Hardesty and Mr. Browning were on their way to Blissfield from West
Bedford, The bridge is on Route 31, a township road near Warsaw.
They had in the past crossed the bridge many times with the same machinery
as was used this morning. Mr. Kinkley said the bridge was built
to sustain
10 tons. The weight of the tractor was given as nine and one-half tons
and
Mr. Kinkley said that at no time on account of the shortness of the
span and
the length of the moving equipment, would more than 10 tons be actually
on
the bridge.
All bridges are examined in the county periodically, and it was the
theory
of the engineer that the abutment may have been loosened by other cars
and
trucks.
Mr. Hardesty had been an employee of Coshocton County since 1933 and
was
credited by the engineer as having been particularly valuable as a
grade
operator.
He was born near Adams Mills. Oct. 2, 1902, and was married Aug. 4,
1926, to
Opal Leavengood, Fresno, who survives along with one son, Alva, 13.
Other
survivors are his mother, Mrs. Florence Hardesty, Fresno Route 1; his
grandmother, Mrs. Emma Pepper of Fresno Route 1; and the following
brothers
and sisters, Mrs. William Everhart, Stone Creek; William Hardesty,
Coshocton
Route 5, Telford Hardesty, Coshocton Route 1; Mrs. William Lint, West
Lafayette,; Miss Vesta Hardesty, Fresno Route 1; David Hardesty of
the U.S.
Army in Texas; Clifford Hardesty of the Fresno Route 1 home.
Tentative funeral plans have been made for Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock
at
the home in Fresno with Rev. Glenroy DShoup in charge. Burial will
be in
Fairview cemetery, Fresno.
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Transcribed by Gwendolyn Hardesty Oliver