July 31 1947: Assistant Euclid Service Director and Boy Killed in Crash at Gettysburg, PA

70 years ago today 2 lives were lost on a rainy day in a head-on collision.

Ronald Sabine, 12, and William Harry Stoneman, 43, assistant Euclid service director and president of coalition club were passengers in a Hudson owned and driven by Paul Hewitt Torbet, 45, Euclid city solicitor.

The threesome were on their way back from a business trip in Washington D.C.. Sabine was traveling with the men he referred to as "uncles". Torbet befriended the young Sabine after his father, Frank Sabine, died of meningitis 2 years prior. The boy had gone on previous trips with Torbet. On this trip Torbet and Stonemen decided since the boy had never seen Getttysburg, they would take him there.

321 East 241st St. and Maplewood in Euclid, where young Ronald F. Sabine lived in 1947.

The accident occurred about 8 miles south of Gettysburg, PA on Route 15, just minutes from their destination.

Paul Torbet was driving the 1947 Hudson when he attempted to pass another vehicle on a hill. It was rainy and they collided with a flat body tractor truck hauling 13 tons of brick driven by Walter Buhl of Vienna, VA. No one in the truck was injured.

Emmitsburg road hill, just north of the MD/PA border

12-year-old Sabine ended up beneath the wheels of the truck, dying instantly. It took some time for the body of the boy to be coaxed out of the car, which itself was pinned under the truck.

Stoneman died some twenty minutes after being admitted to Gettysburg hospital suffering from head injuries, a crushed chest, and fractures to both legs.

Torbet suffered a fractured right leg and shoulder, but survived.

Buhl was absolved of any blame in the crash, while the coroner said the blame should be shared between drive Torbet and an unidentified driver. Torbet said he and Stoneman had agreed to pass a slow motorist, and that said motorist sped up when Torbet attempted to pass. When Torbet was the oncoming truck, he attempted to swerve out of the way, but the truck driver swerved that same direction, causing the fatal collision.

The truck driver and Air Corps veteran Buhl stated that two hitchhikers he was carrying took off into a cornfield after the crash occurred. Buhl said he had a clean driving record; Torbet made the same claim about his own history.

Ambulance driver Luther Topper made a statement saying that Torbet insisted Stoneman was removed first, as the man was more seriously injured. 

Torbet was released from Warner hospital in late October, several months after the accident. He paid a $10 fine on the charge at the same time.

William Harry Stoneman is buried in Euclid cemetery.
Ronald Sabine is buried in Calvary cemetery.
Walter Buhl died in 1977 and is buried in Idylwood, Virginia.

Paul H Torbet, who drafted the charters for Bratenahl, Eastlake, Linndale, and Willoughby Hills in addition to Euclid, retired to Florida in 1973 and died in Fall of 1981, at the age of 81.