A Report On The Accident That Killed Bill
Vukovich In The 1955 Indianapolis 500-Mile-Race
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A Report On The Accident That Killed Bill Vukovich In The 1955 Indianapolis 500-Mile-Race
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2008 Indianapolis Investigation of Historical Vukovich Sites While attending the 2008 Indianapolis 500-Mile-Race, Bob Gates and myself set up a tour of what is left of some unusual and obscure historical Vukovich sites. It was quite an interesting venture and certainly brought us closer to understand more of the Vukovich saga plus the events surrounding the 1955 race. Our first stop was the Speedway Fire Department. In 1955 IMS used City of Speedway fire personnel for fire protection and rescue. Of note was one particular fire truck -- a Diamond T manufactured by the Diamond T Motor Car Company. Diamond T trucks were considered the Cadillac of fire trucks for their day and the company did make some awesome equipment. Our original thought that this was the fire truck which responded to the Vukovich accident and the one parked on the track next to the burning car. However, further research indicates this was not that particular truck as photographs show a Maxim at the scene possibly operated by the Indianapolis Fire Department. This vehicle may have driven to the scene but was apparently not in any of the phtos. Our intention was to see if anybody knew any of the history of that fire truck and if any fire truck collectors had acquired the vehicle and if it still exists. Unfortunately, no one at the fire department was familiar with the vehicle. We did arrange to contact Speedway Fire Chief Curtis Dean to see if there was anything in his records that showed anything on the truck. He reported he knew nothing of the actual truck but had a picture of it on his office wall. According to one source the Speedway Diamond T is still in existence of sorts in that it was combined with another Diamond T. The truck apparently appeared in the movie "Hoosiers" when it led a parade in a scene from the film. The truck is now in the hands of private collectors.
We've done research on this fire truck and it appears to have been manufactured in about 1935. It was used at the Speedway during the Month of May 1955 but may or may not have responded to the Vukovich accident. Here is what one sounds like when started.
This was a 1935 Diamond T 220 -- not a fire truck but shows all the similarities of the Speedway Fire vehicle.
The fire truck that responded to the Vukovich accident was what appeared to be Maxim.
The Current town hall used to be the Speedway Fire Department building. Our next stop was the site of the old 16th Street Speedway across from the Speedway. Aerial photographs that we obtained show the exact location of the track as it was then. Using the location of Grandstand G which still stands today, it is possible to locate the exact positioning of the 16th Street track. It was pretty close to 16th Street and would have been quite a site on the Night Before the "500" with midgets running there. To my surprise the track ran East and West instead of North and South. It was then on to Mates White Front which is now an exotic dancer club. We went in and there was only one dancer dancing and one other dancer sitting at the bar and with nobody else in the club. I started up a conversation with the dancer at the bar and asked her about the famous "downstairs" portion of the club we hear about in the folklore. She said there actually was a downstairs but that a lot of people didn't know about it and it was only opened up on occasion. I'm not saying any of this is true, but that is what she said. We were unable to get in the basement portion but were led to believe it was more original than the main floor -- which of course had been changed into an exotic dancer club -- with the bar surrounding a small stage. You could still get a little bit of the feeling of what it was like. The outside is very original and the location -- just down the street from the Speedway -- was perfect for the drivers and mechanics to come over, get something to eat and relax with a little music. No exotic dancers but it was probably more fun then? No tour of the Vukovich sites would be complete without checking out the Indy Roadster on top of the Auto Glass Company east of Downtown. The story on this is that the company there apparently sponsored and Indy car in the late 50's. The car crashed either in practice or qualifying and never ran again and was never repaired. So the owner placed the car on top of the building. It is surprising to me that nobody has tried to steal it --- but maybe that is a California thing that I've acquired from living here. There may not me a full body to it, running gear or a motor but the chassis might be useable and that could be a basis for restoring the entire car. But on the other hand maybe half the fun is seeing it there sitting on top of that building. You'd think the wind would blow it off and according to legend one time it did. But Vukovich did drive this car (see video) so that alone makes it pretty historical. Vuky only drove four cars at Indy. This car at one time was the Jones & Maley Special -- a car that Vukovich took out in 1954 on a test when his car was down.
A close up of the writing on the side says "Special" and "Indianapolis". From there it was on to 550 N. La Salle Street: This is the address quoted in the newspapers the next day after the accident as being the home of Paul Colip Jr., the person sitting in the Studebaker Sedan that the Vukovich car hit. The neighborhood, while at that time probably pretty nice, was in a more rundown condition but we did find the place. As seems to be a trend with these locations, the address is either difficult to find or in some cases different. In this case there was no visible address but we determined the correct house by deduction and by asking the next door neighbor about the address and who incidentally thought we were interested in buying the property because it was vacant. The actual dwelling was a duplex and Colip, Jr. apparently lived on the north side. The building was completely vacant and the door to Colip's duplex was open and swinging back in forth in the wind with the hinges creaking. We are not making this up. I thought if I had gone in the back yard I would have found an old rusted Studebaker with a wrecked hood almost covered by weeds. I decided to let that one slide and hand it over to Rod Serling. How Colip, Jr. ever came to on the backstretch that day will probably never be known. It was just one of those things and a strange one. We had the home address of the Patrolman Victor H. Osborne as 282 E. Vermont in Downtown Indianapolis. He was sitting on the Jeep struck by the Vukovich car. Osborne was in the line of fire before having been involved in the famous "Elder Avenue Gun Battle" in the summer of 1954. In that incident police tried to arrest a man for shooting his wife. The man ran into his house and began firing at police. Reinforcements were called and dozens of policemen fired thousands of rounds into the house during a two and a half hour siege. When it was over, the gunman was dead and 11 policemen and the gunman's wife had all been shot. The site of this shootout is a couple miles east and a little south of the Speedway, but of course had nothing to do with the track. What we found at the Osborne residence was an empty lot but next to it was an original looking apartment building. Gates said that the apartment the policeman lived was probably very similar to the one still standing. It would be easy to imagine the patrolman living downtown in the apartment and walking to work. Again, how he happened to be at the crash site is interesting but more explainable. He was probably assigned to work the backstretch that day for security and wound up being part of history..
This building had something to do with the Ford pickup that Vukovich hit when he crashed. The building, located at 850 North Meridian on the corner of Ninth Street in Downtown Indianapolis, matches the address on the side of Ford pickup in photographs taken at the crash scene. The building was vacant in 2008 but apparently was "Fred Williams, Jr., Inc" in 1955 as was painted on the side of the Ford F100 pickup. According to the 1961 Indianapolis City Directory "Fred Williams, Jr." was a Lincoln Mercury car dealer, 850 N. Meridian in Indianapolis. This goes along with what the sign on the truck which shows "Lincoln" (on one side of the sign) and "Mercury" (on the other side of the sign) with his company name and address in the middle. According to the directory, this location was for new car sales and service -- 850 North Meridian, Indianapolis. While the building may not look much like a car dealer now, it is conceivable in 1955 that the white areas were large picture windows to display the cars as was popular in those days. The white areas do appear to be inserts placed there sometime over the years. The insignia at the top of the building seems to have no significance to a car dealership. Williams, according to the directory, also had two other business locations listed -- apparently used car lots -- one at 1308 N. North Meridian and the other at 840 N. Illinois. Williams himself, according to records, lived with his wife at 3111 N. Meridian Street, Apt. A. Whether Williams was actually driving the truck that day in 1955 is unknown.
Enhanced photo of sticker in right front window of Ford pickup. If anybody thinks they know what either of these say, please email.
Enhanced photo of second sticker in middle of front window of Ford Pickup. |
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