ESCAPED AN AWFUL FALL

BUT HURT MAY BE FATAL

Driver Thrown on the Railing of Bridge in a Street Car Collision.

P. V. Michaud, 20 years of age, a driver for the Ward Box company, living at 110 South Robert street, received serious injuries in a street car accident yesterday evening at the south end of the Robert street bridge, and so narrowly escaped being thrown from the bridge to the ice below that witnesses of the accident turned away, sickened at the sight.

Michaud was driving across the Robert street bridge, and had a position just outside a heavy truck on the right hand side of the bridge. A South St. Paul car coming down the incline struck the truck from the rear, throwing it against Michaud's rig and hurling Michaud clear of the wreckage and ten feet away. To witnesses of the accident, it seemed that Michaud would clear the bridge railing and fall to the ice below the bridge, a distance of about sixty feet, but his body struck the railing, balanced for a moment, and then fell backward on the bridge.

He was picked up unconscious and carried to a store at the rear end of the bridge, where Dr. Whitacre attended him, both legs were badly injured.

His condition, though critical, is not necessarily, prohibitive of his recovery. Indeed, Dr. Whitacre today reported that the injured man's chance of recovery was very good.

Michaud's rig was completely wrecked, and so great was the force of the collision that his horse was thrown clear of the rig and the harness torn completely off him. The animal escaped with a few scratches The truck, because of its great weight received but little damage and the street car was only damaged slightly.