Killed By An Electric Car

KILLED BY AN ELECTRIC CAR

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Aretus A. Bedell Struck Near Dearborn. 

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A RESPECTED CITIZEN

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The Motorman Was a Near Neighbor and an Intimate Friend.

A distressing accident occurred yesterday morning, resulting in the instant death of a respected Ypsilanti citizen, Aretus A. Bedell of the east side. Mr. Bedell was an enthusiastic wheelman and early yesterday morning he, in company with Eugene Sweet and Don Woodward, started to wheel to Detroit. They had got out to within about two miles of Dearborn when the first electric car came along from the west about 7:40 o'clock Messrs. Sweet and Woodward were two or three rods ahead of Mr. Bedell. The bicycle path at this point run right up by the end of the ties of the electric railway. The two men ahead got off their wheels to pass over patch of sand, but Mr. Bedell tried to ride through it, but was obliged to dismount. As he dismounted he stood on the end of the ties and his companions noticing the car rapidly approaching, shouted to him to look out. He being somewhat hard of hearing apparently misunderstood, for he pulled his wheel out of the path as though to let a wheelman from behind pass. Messrs. Sweet and Woodward again warned him, and he turned his head to look over his shoulder and seeing the car jumped, but it was too late, the car struck him on the left side, breaking the ribs from the spine and also breaking the left leg just above the left knee. He was thrown 25 feet and was dead when he struck the ground. He was taken aboard the car and carried to the waiting room at Dearborn, where a jury was empannelled and reviewed the remains. He was then brought to his home in this city. Norvel Ayers, the motorman of the car which struck Mr. Bedell, is a long time and intimate friend of the deceased. He lives right beside him and when Mr. Bedell was an engineer on the Michigan Central years ago, Ayers was his fireman. Ayers is greatly distressed over the accident. Mr. Bedell was about 56 years old and was for years a railroad man and more recently in the boot and shoe business. He leaves a wife and one son. When the remains were brought home, Mrs. Bedell and her mother were alone, the son, Aretus A. Jr., being in New York on his vacation. The inquest will held at Dearborn this afternoon at 2 o'clock. No arrangement have yet been made for the funeral. Mr. Bedell was a G. A. R. and a member of the A. O. U. W. and the Maccabees. He was a man of great good nature, a good citizen and highly respected. The family have succeeded after much delay in finding the son and a telegram this morning states that he started for home last night at 6 p.m. He will probably reach here, therefore, at 6 o'clock this evening. Mr. Bedell was insured in the A. O. U. W. and Maccabees for $4,000.