Bio: Isable, Ray H.(Accident - 1962)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon
Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Isable, Schultz

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) June 21, 1962

Isable, Ray H. (Accident - 1962)

Ray  H. Isable of Abrams, Wis., is in Memorial Hospital with a neck nicked, if not broken and with multiple bruises and lacerations.  He is the man who walked away from the wreck of his big truck last Friday morning, but he isn’t walking now.  He is flat on his back in bed, with his head and chin attached to a harness which is in turn attached to a weight running through a pulley behind him.  To say nothing of walking, he is not even chewing.  He takes his nourishment in liquid form, dropped into his mouth by the attentive hospital people.

Ray Isable is a striking illustration of the delay in evidence of injury connected with shock.  In another story in  this issue it is stated that Mr. Isable walked away from the wreck, and this was supposed at first to be true.  Actually, he was thrown from the cab when it rolled over, and picked himself up in a field 50 feet or more away.  He made his way to the tractor, stumbling groggily over a fence or two on the way.  He tried to get from the cab the record of his driving, but the fire was too much for him and at that point he did walk away.

Presently a motorist came along and agreed to give the alarm at Neillsville.  Isable remained on the job.  Then another truck driver came along, saw that Isable was groggy and advised him to ride into town with him.  Isable consented and the two started for Neillsville, but presently met Traffic Officer Schultz and Isable went back with him to the wreck.

After a time, he came into Neillsville with the officer, and was given a preliminary examination.  This revealed multiple bruises and lacerations.  Nothing further was immediately evident; but later the x-ray revealed that one or more bones of the neck had been nicked if not broken.  By that time Mr. Isable had a very sore throat, and he soon found himself harnessed to the head of his bed, with jaws unable to function.

Mr. Isable has a wife and three small children at Abrams, Wisconsin. He has been a truck driver for 11 years, with only minor mishaps heretofore.  In this instance he is happy that he was thrown far from the burning tractor, otherwise there would have been nothing even to hitch to a bed.