Three Killed In Washtenaw Rd. Crash

Residents Of Ypsilanti Are Victims
Car Said Moving At Speeds Exceeding 90 Miles An Hour
A car said to be traveling more than 90 miles an hour carried two 17-year-old boys and a 33-year-old man, all Ypsilanti residents, to their deaths late last night in a two-car crash on Washtenaw Rd. in Ypsilanti township.
The dead are: Daniel D. Nixon, jr., 33 of 12 S. Huron St., Mike Murray, 17, of 16 Ecorse Rd..; and Robert Stoddard, 17, of 406 Emerick St.
Injured in the collision and reported in "fair condition" late this morning at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital was Mrs. Anita Goodsman, 50, of 708 Ferris St., Ypsilanti.
Mishap Recalled
The three fatalities in a single accident follows by less than two months a two-car accident on W. Stadium Blvd. in Ann Arbor. In that pre-dawn crash two of the victims were in one car, the other in a second car.
Last night the victims were riding together. The car was being driven by Nixon and was headed west near the Gingham Inn. Sheriff's deputies said the car was "passing everything on the road." Witnesses told deputies the car was hurtling through the night at a speed estimated at more than 90 miles per hour.
The deputies' report said the late-model car went out of control after crossing the New York Central Railroad tracks. It skidded sideways for 170 feet, deputies said, crossed over into the east bound lane and collided with the car being driven by Mrs. Goodsman.
Pavement Dry
Deputies said the pavement was dry and the road straight and level. It is believed, deputies said, that Mrs. Goodsman tried to manuever her car off the road when she saw the Nixon car approaching her sideways and out of control. However, when she interviewed at the hospital last night she apparently was in shock, deputies reported, and was unable to give an account of the accident.
Several witnesses told sheriff's officers the Nixon car had passed them at high rates of speed shortly before the accident.
Deputies said there were "many broken and pulverized beer bottles in the car and there was a strong smell of beer in the car and on" the occupants of the Nixon car.
The three fatalities raised the 1961 death toll in Washtenaw county to 37. Last year when 41 persons died in traffic accidents, there were 36 deaths on this date. The most recent death this year occured Nov. 23 in Ypsilanti township when Harold E. Thacker, 20, was killed.