Surnames: Rogan, Reger, Wagner, Nienow, Babl, Ninnemann

----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 03/21/1946

Rogan, Robert (1901? - 18 Mar. 1946)

Traffic disaster struck for the third time Sunday in the family of W. J. Rogan, Marathon county agent. His son, Robert, age 25, died Monday night at St. Mary’s hospital of injuries received when the car he was driving left Highway 29 on a slight curve east of Ringle while driving at high speed early Sunday morning. His injuries were listed as a fractured spine, pelvis and left leg and internal damages. The young man was recently discharged from the army.

Injured with Rogan were two servicemen, Eugene Reger, 19, of Kelly, who suffered a fracture of a neck vertebra, and Clarence Wagner, of Wausau, who escaped with an arm injury and head and knee bruises. Wagner was released from the hospital after treatment, but returned later for further examination. Roger was reported not in serious condition.

County Traffic Officer Frank Nienow said the three were hurt Sunday morning at approximately 1:30 o’clock when their car, driven by Rogan, left highway 29 on a slight curve two miles east of Ringle while traveling at a high rate of speed.

The story of the crash was written in the earth along the roadside, where the car plunged and hurtled after leaving the highway and came to a stop upside down with two of its three passengers pinned inside.

Signs showed, said Nienow, that the car, traveling east, first headed off the pavement onto the right shoulder. Half of the road; it careened along for 100 feet before Rogan wrenched it back onto the highway, Nienow said.

The vehicle then plunged off the road on the other side, traveling 60 feet and struck an obstruction which threw it end over end, the traffic officer related. Marks indicated it hurled 20 feet through the air, then rolled over before coming to rest on its top, he said.

Wagner was probably saved from serious injury when he fell out as the car left the ground. He told Nienow that Rogan was driving at between 60 and 65 miles per hour.

The top of the car was smashed down into the body, trapping the other two in the front seat. An unidentified driver saw the wreck and telephoned county traffic officers and Wausau police. The Wausau ambulance crew freed Rogan and Reger and brought them to the hospital with Wagner.

Robert Rogan was the third of the Rogan brothers to be involved in serious accidents. Howard, 22, is still recovering at St. Mary’s hospital from the effects of a crash near Kelly February 3rd in which his leg was broken.

A third brother, John, was the driver of a car which crashed into a freight engine January, 20, 1940, in the town of Weston, seriously injuring Walter Ninnemann, of Wausau.

Nienow said Sunday’s crash climaxed a night during which Rogan and Reger had visited several places in the vicinity of Schofield. They picked up Wagner, an acquaintance, late in the evening, he said. George Babl, Schofield marshal, said he had warned Rogan about 10:30 o’clock for speeding in the village.

Reger, who was home on a 30-day furlough, had re-enlisted in the army and was planning to report to Fort Snelling, Minn., for assignment.