JOE COOPER AND MORRIS KEELER DEAD - BILLY CHANDLER DYING AND LOUIS PEIO INJURED IN SPEEDWAY WRECKS

DOUBLE DISASTER MARKS OPENING OF DES MOINES TRACK

Ohio Driver Is Instantly Killed When Car Breaks Early in 300 Mile Race.

SECOND CRASH NEAR END

Chandler Car Turns Somersault, Hurling Driver and Mechanician Far Afield.

LATTER DIES IN HOSPITAL

Attendants Say Driver's Death Is Only a Matter of Hours.

At 2:30 o'clock it was said at the Methodist hospital that Mr. Chandler was sleeping and no change in his condition was noted. At the Methodist hospital it was said Louis Peio is expected to recover.

Joe Cooper is dead. Morris (Stubbs) Keeler, mechanician for W.W. Chandler is dead. Chandler is in Mercy hospital suffering injuries which his physician fears will prove fatal, and Louis Peio, Cooper's mechanician, is in the Methodist hospital with several broken ribs on each side of his body and probably interial injuries. And the 300 mile auto derby -- the big initial event on Des Moines' new speedway -- is now part of America's auto racing history.

Two Wrecks Mar Opening.

Two accidents, each claiming a man's life, marred the opening of the saucer-shaped track near Valley Junction yesterday. One happened at the beginning of the race and the other near the close: one direclty in front of the grandstand and most of the 10,000 or so spectators, and the other on the opposite side of the speedway.

Joe Cooper of Sebring, O., and his mechanician, Louis Peio, also of Sebring, in a Sebring car figured in the first fatality of the afternoon; W.W. Chandler of Chicago and his mechanician, Morris Keeler of St. Paul, in a Duesenberg furnished the second.

Cooper Falls Early.

Cooper's accident came as he was entering the home stretch on the thirty-eighth mile. Two laps before the treads on his left rear tire flew off. Just as he was entering the straightaway in front of the north end of the grandstand the tire blew out. The rear end of the machine swerved and skidded towards the inside of the saucer until the machine was almost at right angles with the track.

The driver was seen to attempt desperately to hold his machine to the track. He failed, but did succeed in partly changing its position so that it crashed through the top of the saucer at an angle.

Machine Turns Over.

As the machine fell sideways it turned completely over and landed on the right side. As it dropped, Peio, the mechanician, was thrown out and clear of the car. Cooper was thrown partly out and was caught beneath the edge of the machine on the ground. His neck was broken by the fall. His body was partly crushed. He was dead by the time the spectators reached him.

After landing, the car straightened up. As it did so it threw Cooper's body onto the ground. It swerved around and backed out of the hole of about two feet in depth which it had dug when it fell, and then crashed forward into the braces beneath the grandstand. Several were broken before the machine stopped about ten feet beneath the stand.

Railing Is Splintered.

Pieces of scantling, railing planks and splinters of all kinds flew in every direction when the machine crashed though the railing at the top of the speedway -- a railing which the builders of the track had believed was of sufficient strength to keep any machine inside the track and safe the drop of ten to fifteen feet from the top of the saucer to the ground outside.

A splinter from one of the 2x8 planks of the railing was driven into the mechanism of the car, entering at the rear of the engine and extending into the radiator. The hole in the radiator was too samll for the splinter to have gone through from the front, therefore it is evident that the car either had swung completely around as it swept over the edge of the incline, or that it was beginning to whirl and carried the board with it, driving it through the engine when it landed.

Many in Peril.

Had the accident occurred at any lap previous to the thirty-eighth this report might record the death of or serious injury to several spectators or employees of the company, who had been numerous around the scene of the accident before it occurred. As it was, several were hit by flying wood. One, a peddler of pop, was badly cut on the head by a piece of a two-by-four torn from the top of the track.

Chandler's accident happened about 200 laps after Cooper's fatal plunge. He had completed the 236th lap and was half way around the track on the 237th mile.

Turns Somersault.

The exact cause of the accident is unknown. It was stated by guards that witnessed the mishap that the left fron tire blew out, causing the machine to skid half way up the saucer and then leaped into the air turning a somersault and plunging through and over the wire fence on the inside of the track. Chandler said the crash resulted from the rear left wheel breaking. It was found broken after the accident. Other racers last night, however, told of trouble Chandler had been having earlier in the race with the rear axle, and were inclined to blame its giving way for the crash.

The first that all but a very few of the spectators knew of the Chandler accident was that an unidentified car was lying apparently inside the safety fence about half way around the first turn and sending up a thin blue pencil of smoke.

Apparently everyone saw the car at about the same time, for simultaneously people who had been sitting in autos parked inside the track began to run toward the turtled car from all sections of the field.

Delay in Identifying Car.

It was not determined, even by race officials, which car had been in the accident, until after the numbers of the cars remaining on the track had been checked over, and it was not until after persons had returned from the gruesome corner of the field that it was learned in the grandstand of the seriousness of the accident.

Chandler's car had been turned to face the oncoming tide of autos, and it had rolled on its side across the fifty foot safety belt and through the fence. Chandler and Keeler were lying sprawled on the grass and quite close together forty feet away from the machine.

Saw Chandler Wreck.

J.S. Irish, who with his son Eugene Irish and a friend, Stanley Workman, of Keosauqua, had gone to the south turn to watch the cars taking the sharp curve at that point was the first person to reach Chandler after the accident. The driver was prostrate on the ground but still conscious.

"Never mind me," he said when Mr. Irish raised his head, "go and care for my mechanician."

The mechanician also was conscious and said he believed his back had been broken.

"We had observed," said Irish, "that the Chandler car in taking the turn always ran close to the lower edge of the track.

Hurled Ten Feet.

"Suddenly we saw a tire twist. The car swerved, striking the dirt at the edge of the track. Chandler made desperate efforts to bring it back but it turned a clean cut somersault, the two right wheels being crushed.

The river and mechanician both were hurled from the car, landing in the open about ten feet further and then bounding at least ten feet further. In their path the earth was torn up as though it had been dug with a pick.

"The distance from the grandstand was so great that few persons there knew what had happened and it was some time before we could attract attention."

Chandler's Back Broken.

At the Mercy hospital last night it was reported that Chandler was suffering from a broken back and internal injuries.

No one could see Chandler, but his nurse said he probably would not outlive the day.

"He doesn't realize his condition, though," she said, "He sent a telegram to his wife, telling her that he had sustained only a few bruises."

No hope was held out for Keeler's life at any time. Examination at the hospital revealed that he had sustained a broken back, a broken hip, broken shoulders and serious injury to his kidney. He died early in the evening, only a few hours after being taken to the hospital.

Mrs. Chandler was in Chicago when her husband was injured. She has started for Des Moines, and will arrive this morning.

Both Were Married.

Both of the dead men were married, and one of the is the father of children. Morris Keeler was a St. Paul man, new to the racing game, who recently had purchased a half interest in the Duesenberg car in which he met his death. He was riding with Chandler to "learn the ropes" of the auto racing game, and he intended to enter it as a professional next year.

He had figured, Eddie O'Donnell said last night, to make enough prize money in this race to finish paing for the Duesenberg.

Mrs. Keeler was in St. Paul when the accident occurred. She was immediately notified of the accident and that her husband's injuries were serious. It is believed she started for Des Moines before an opportunity was given to notify her of Keeler's death.

Morbid Throng Busy.

The souvenir fiend was in evidence yesterday afternoon. People, who crowded about Cooper's wrecked machine after the accident, vied with each other to secure pieces of the 2x4 timber that had been driven through radiator, engine and dash, and into the pit where drivers keep their feet. In a downtown hotel lobby a splinter of the timber that had been picked out of Cooper's shoe was being exhibited with a great deal of pride.

Chandler a Veteran.

"Billy" Chandler is a veteran in the auto racing game. He is a New Yorker, and it was seven years ago that he first got into a regular race, as mechanician for Ralph Mulford. Chandler sat alongside Mulford in practically every one of his races for four years. Last night Mulford, who drove himself to second and possibly first place in the race yesterday, was on the verge of tears. He hurried back and forth from the hospital at the behest of Chandler, at one time making a trip to town to get the injured man some cigarettes.

Friends Hopeful.

"He's as bright as a dollar." said Mulford with a catch in his throat. "The doctor says he won't live till morning, but I don't believe it. He asked for some cigarettes and I'm going to get 'em for him."

After leaving Mulford, Chandler began driving regularly. He has been doing this for three years, and he has been with the Duesenberg team this entire season. It is evident that he has not escaped unscathed in his battles with speed, for, at the hospital las night he said to his nurses: "Well, this is the second time I've had a smashup. I suppose it'll get me the third time."

Cooper Well Known.

Joe Cooper was one of the most popular drivers with his fellows in the racing game. He had been in it for several years, but this was his first year to break into the large events. Cooper is survived by a wife and children, at his home at Sebring, O. Peio, who is also married, lived at Sebring. Mrs. Peio probably will come to Des Moines, but Mrs. Cooper will stay in Sebring to receive the mangled body of her husband.

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