Youth Killed By Train
At Adelaide St. Crossing

Kevin Matthew Conroy, 17, was killed Sunday.
The pickup truck he was driving was hit by a Grand Trunk freight train at the Adelaide street grade crossing at 2:35 p.m.

His truck was slammed against a signal box and rolled end over and down a ditch at the north side of the tracks.

He was killed instantly.

The crossing signal lights and bells at the railroad crossing were working, Fenton police said. Cause of the accident was not known.

Tom Fisher, Durand, engineer of the train, and R.R. Summers, Durand, conductor, told Fenton police the train was proceeding eastward at about 45 miles an hour when the accident occured.

Before the 69 car train could be stopped the locomotive had traveled past the Fenton depot. The train was at the site of the accident for more than an hour Sunday, with the freight cars seperated at Leroy street so traffic could get through. traffic was blocked at all other intersections inside the city as far west as Poplar street.

The youth, who lived with his parents at 11332 Denton Hill road, was a student at Fenton high school. He was employed at Fenton Shell Service station and at the time of the accident was wearing a Shell service station jacket.

A crowd of persons gathered at the scene watching removal of the body by Allen Ambulance Co. and dragging away of the completely demolished pickup truck by Dewey's Service Station. The impact was so great it tore up a section of the wood sidewalk across the grade crossing, knocked down signal poles and put the blinker warning system out of commission overnight until repair crews could restore service.

Conroy had enrolled at Fenton high school last September when his family moved to Fenton from Wolverine, near Gaylord, Mich.

Police chief Charles M. Conklin said the fatality was Fenton's first traffic death since 1970.