100 years ago in Spokane: A man’s story after his car plunged into the river was called into question

A fancy new Hudson auto performed a spectacular feat: It catapulted itself 75 feet into the Spokane River.

Police said the driver was going too fast and thought he was on East Mission Avenue, instead of East Sinto . East Sinto had no bridge.

By the time the driver realized his mistake, the car was hurtling over the bank to the river far below.

The “driver saved himself only because he was an expert swimmer.” But some confusion reigned over who, exactly, was the driver. The sopping wet man who crawled out of the river and reported the accident claimed that he was a passenger in the borrowed car. He insisted that some other man, whose name he did not know, was driving it.

Police were skeptical.

A bit of confusion also surrounded the salvaging of the expensive vehicle. Firemen attached two grappling hooks and attempted to haul the car out of the river. But when dawn arrived, rescuers discovered they had attached the hooks to a big boulder, not to the car.

From the accident beat: J.M. Parry, who operated the Snake River ferryboat at Almota, Washington, was struck on the head by the cable wheel on the boat and hurled into the river.

Two passengers, a man and a woman, were able to pull Parry from the water, but it was too late. He failed to regain consciousness. A doctor later found that he might have been killed instantly by the blow.