Perry E. Rider
1920-1938
Niles Daily Star, Tuesday, July 26, 1938, page 1-2
Perry Rider[sic], 17, Victim; Dies in Hospital After Accident in B. Springs
Warned by Others of Dangers on Old Bridge
Lives Three Hours
Campers Apply First Aid Methods to Revive Youth
Fatally burned when 37,000 volts passed through his body, Perry Rider, 17, son of Mr. and Mrs. Rollie Rider, 423 Parkway, died at 7:58 o'clock Monday night in Pawating hospital.
The tragedy occcurred at 4:50 o'clock Monday afternoon on the north approach of the interurban bridge crossing the St. Joseph river at Berrien Springs.
Accompanied by a companion, Robert Fernstahl, 15, son of Mr. and Mrs. E.F. Fernstahl, 204 Woodruff street, Perry had gone to Berrien Springs to swim.
The boys had just started home when the fatal accident took place. According ot the Fernstal boy, who was an eye witness, Perry had climbed the upright girders and had stared to walk across the top of the bridge when he came in contact with the high tension wires.
The jolt from the current knocked the Rider boy off the bridge into the water, a fall of about 45 feet. Robert Wollam and Joan Davidson, both of Berrien Springs, waded about 35 feet out into the river and brought the boy to shore.
The sheriff's office at St. Joeph was notified. A deputy started at once for Berrien Springs with the county's new resuscitation machine.
Meanwhile, campers attracted to the scene, applied artificial respiration to the victim. His breathing was restored before the deputy arrived. When Rider began to breathe he was rushed to Pawating hospital in the Nichols ambulance.
Although the body was badly seared he regained consciousness at the hospital and recognized his parents before he died.
Deputy Sheriff Speese said that he was informed that boys in the vicinity had warned Rider against climbing to the top of the bridge, which had not been used for several years, and had told him that it was dangerous.
On May 23 the Rider and Fernstahl boy narrowly escaped death when they fell from the rafters of a barn on the Claude Harger farm on M-40 north of Niles.
In that accident the Fernstahl boy suffered serious head bruises and remained in the hospital until June 11. The Rider boy escaped injury when he landed in a pile of hay.
Perry was born in Kalamazoo, Nov. 33[sic], 1920. He moved to Niles with his parents nine years ago, and had attended Niles schools.
Besides his parents, he leaves to sisters, Mrs. Helen Robb, Niles, and Dorothy, at home; also four brothers, Robert, Rollie, Jr., George and Larry, at home.
Funeral services will be at 2:30 o'clock Thursday afternoon in the Price and Kiger funeral home. The Rev. T.O. Lee will officiate. Burial will be in Silverbrook cemetery.
Friends may call at the funeral home.