Accident reminds travelers to buckle up
By Sheila Shelton/Staff Reporter
The accident happened 34 years ago on the Fourth of July and it is something police officers remember in great detail all these years later.
Motorists, when you see police officers working this holiday weekend and you notice them glancing to see in a car that everyone is securely belted or children are in safety restraints, be grateful that laws on safety restraints in Illinois have come such a long way. These restraints could have saved much pain, grief and suffering had they been available and mandated in 1971.
What is now bringing this long-ago accident into the spotlight is that two of the victims of the crash recently came to Pontiac to find out as much as they could so they could find some closure to what happened to them so many years ago.
While they were in Pontiac they learned that one of the police officers who played a significant role in helping at the accident scene was still working in the area and would talk to them.
Former District 6 State Police trooper and Pontiac Police Chief Al Lindsey said he very clearly remembers the single-vehicle accident he handled on the morning of July 4, 1971.
"There are some things, as a policeman, that you just never forget. This accident was one of them. Troopers John Manning, (the late) John Dittmer and myself had all just about completed our shifts, which were centered in Livingston County. At 6:50 a.m. the three of us were in our squad cars at the intersection of Routes 116 and 66 when we were notified of an accident with injuries three miles north of Pontiac on Route 66," said Lindsey.
He explained that state police in those days were certified first responders for medical aid at accident scenes.
"We were dispatched to go to the scene, but trooper Dan Falcomata was being sent to do the actual accident report," said Lindsey.
"When we arrived at the scene there was a station wagon upside down in the median, plus three small girls and a woman in the median. Right next to the car, in the median, was a small baby. My most vivid recollection is the baby as she looked being held in John Manning's arms . Her arm was gone and we worked so hard to get the bleeding stopped. I can't remember anything else until we got the bleeding stopped. In those days, wearing a seat belt and having children in safety restraints were not law. Thus all these people were injured so severely because they had been ejected from the vehicle," he said.
He said that two ambulances arrived and he and Manning turned the baby over to the ambulance attendants.
"While everyone was working on getting the baby into the ambulance I crawled into the upside-down car and found the baby's arm. My theory on what happened to the baby was that she had been asleep in the third seat and in the accident the third seat folded and then re-opened and subsequently took the baby's arm with it. The arm was still hanging in the seat. I took the arm to the ambulance attendants and they took it with them and the baby to Saint James," Lindsey said.
A copy of the original accident report states that Goldie L. Shaffer, 26, of Round Lake, was driving a 1967 Toyota station wagon, when for unknown reasons she drove off the roadway on the right, lost control, went back across the northbound lanes and the vehicle rolled into the median.
Lindsey said the accident scene that day was very bad. He said that a woman traveling down the highway stopped to help him and the other troopers give aid to the victims.
"All of us troopers from that day talked later about how wonderful the woman had been, but it was such a busy working scene we never got the woman's name or even a chance to thank her," he said.
With the first ambulance on its way to Saint James the second ambulance was left with no driver or attendants.
"This left our new primary focus being the mother of the children, who also sustained very serious injuries. I drove the ambulance to the hospital with the mother inside. She ended up having a broken neck, broken back and broken pelvis. Dr. Floyd Weaver operated and reattached the baby's arm. He later wrote a letter to we troopers and said that we had saved the baby's life by knowing how to stop the hemorrhaging," Lindsey said.
The right arm reattachment did not work.
The baby was Valene Shaffer, who was 8 months old in 1971. She is now 35-year-old Valene Valentine of Lindenhurst. She and one of her sisters, Anette (Shaffer) Sanchez, now of San Antonio, Texas, and who was 6 years old in 1971, recently met face-to-face with Lindsey.
"The women told me that although their mother, too, survived the accident, she never wanted to talk about it. They said they had come to Pontiac to see what they could find out about the accident and see exactly where it happened," he said.
Lindsey, who is now a contractual employee of the Illinois State Police, is based at District 6 headquarters, on old Airport Road, and happened to be in the building when the women arrived there unannounced.
"My sister Anette was here for a graduation in the family and there were so many things that we have wondered about for years concerning the accident. We decided to take a day and go to Pontiac and see if we could find the place on the highway where the accident occurred and maybe see if we could find any of the police officers that handled the accident," said Valentine.
Valentine said there were a number of significant things that happened when the sisters got to Pontiac.
"First we went to the wrong police department, then we had to ask directions at a service station and then we still got lost," she said.
"It was still as though it was meant to be that we would find all the pieces to the puzzle. If we wouldn't have been running late we would not have been at state police when Al was there. Then Mary Corrigan could remember having heard about the accident and she and Captain (Sue) Jansky did some searching and got Al connected with us and were able to get copies of the original accident report from Springfield," she said.
Lindsey took them to the site of the accident and explained that due to the way the highway was built years ago it would have been impossible for a driver to regain control of an out-of-control vehicle in their mother's situation.
"I have never blamed my mother for any part of the accident. We knew all along that drugs or alcohol were no part of the accident. Mother tended to blame herself all these years. She had so many terrible injuries herself, and then she felt guilty about my losing my arm. From the first time I can remember as a small child I have never had (a right arm) and it has not stopped me from doing anything I want. Among the things I can do as well as anyone else are acrobatics, softball, cheerleading, swimming (even some championship competitions), tie shoes, fasten bras and change diapers," she said.
"Our trip to Pontiac turned out so well for Anette and I that I am going to bring my other sister, Gerri, and my mother back down there this summer. The people at District 6 and Al were wonderful to us earlier, and maybe I can help these two work through everything for the first and last time," said Valentine.
"State troopers really, really believe in the use of occupant restraints and a story like this one tells the story completely," said Jansky.
"Today the interstate systems are much safer and more modern than Route 66 ever was. First of all, you don't have motorists crossing four lanes every mile. Then safety belts and child restraint seats have made a tremendous difference. I hope everyone that reads this story makes certain each person in a vehicle is properly restrained before putting a vehicle in gear," said Lindsey