A freak automobile accident about 10:30 Sunday morning in Vermont resulted in the death of a child and serious injuries to another, as they were playing in a sandbox in their yard, which was surrounded by a picket fence to prevent their playing in the street.
Terry D. Wright, 2-year-old son of Robert and Jane Wright of Vermont was killed, while playing at the residence of his first cousin, Eugena L. McCarty, also 2, daughter of Eugene and Linda McCarty. Mrs. McCarty and Mrs. Wright are sisters.
According to State Trooper Wayne Thornsborough, Marcus Foster, 62, who lives across the street from the McCarty residence, started to back his automobile into the city street from his driveway. The accelerator in the car stuck, and the car traveled in an arc across the street through the picket fence and across the sandpile, striking the children.
It then continued through another part of the fence and went back across the street, stopping when it ran into a stump in the yard of the house east of the Foster residence.
The Wright child was dragged several feet by the car.
Both children were taken to McDonough District Hospital in Macomb, where Terry died at 2 p.m. of severe head and chest injuries.
The McCarty child sustained multiple fractures and abrasions and was reported in serious condition Sunday night.
Terry was born Sept. 24, 1952, in Macomb.
In addition to his parents, he is survived by a brother, Robert Lee Wright Jr., and his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Flynn and Mr. and Mrs. Cecil R. Wright; and his great-grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Wright, all of Vermont.
Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the Vermont Methodist Church. The Rev. Jonathan Drake officiated and burial was in the Vermont Cemetery.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus