Loose Wheels by Gary Helmer

Loose Wheels

By Gary Helmer

In the fall of 1964 we were harvesting sugar beets on the Wilson farm about six miles east of Belle Fourche on highway 212.  It was the first place on the south side of the highway just east of the Belle Fourche river bridge.  My oldest brother Ray and I were operating the beet harvesters and Ray’s Wilma and another brother Glenn were driving the trucks to haul the sugar beets to the beet dump on the North side of the U and I Sugar Company’s sugar beet processing plant located east of Belle Fourche.  We would work until dark this was before daylight savings time came into existence and I would take the last load of the day to the beet dump in Belle Fourche on my way home for the night as we lived south of Belle Fourche along the Redwater river.  On this particular night I was in a hurry to get to the beet dump before 6:00 pm.  I was traveling west at about 70 mph when I passed a pickup by the Ingersoll school.  About two miles down the road I started to slow down to make a right hand turn down the county road that lead to the beet dump.  All of a sudden the left rear of the truck dropped down and the truck started to slide like it was on ice.   I could see sparks in the rearview mirror as it slid down the highway.  I didn’t know what had happened until I saw a wheel and tire pass me on the left side.  As I was controlling the truck, I watched the wheel speed down the highway towards a car approximately a quarter of a mile away traveling east towards me.  Just as the speeding wheel approached the car, it swerved into the right hand lane and I never saw it again.

I flagged down the pickup that I had passed earlier to ask them to call Ray to tell him that I needed some help.  Doug Brost stopped by, and I had him go notify John Moline, the operator of the beet dump, that I wouldn’t make it in by 6:00.  I had the truck parked on the shoulder of the highway with the lights on.  As I waited for Ray, I stood at the left rear of the truck watching traffic go by.  Several vehicles passed until I noticed a car coming towards me, I could hear the engine back rap as the driver had taken his foot off of the accelerator but was not moving over.  I ran into the road ditch to get out of the way of the car.  As I got into the ditch, I turned to see if the car may swerve into the ditch.  At that moment, I watched the car crash into the back of the stopped truck.  The car lights went out as the car impacted the truck.  The wrecked car sat on the highway with no lights on, and there was oncoming traffic. The truck started to roll into the ditch.  I ran to stop the truck and set the brake, I ran back to the car to see if the occupant was okay.  As I opened the car door a dog jumped out and took off and the driver got out with blood running down his face from a wound on the forehead.  The occupant seemed to be okay as he was calling for his dog. As soon as he exited the wrecked car, he took off after his dog.  I asked the next car that arrived on the scene to park behind the wrecked car to keep someone from crashing into it.  Shortly after the accident happened Ray arrived followed by Glenn, another brother Larry, Marvin Kindsfater the owner of the adjoining land and Sheriff George Hafner.

The tow truck driven by Bob Conner arrived to move the wrecked car off the highway.  With his flashlight in hand, the sheriff walked around talking to people.  He told me and Ray to come to the jail the next night to file a report.  We all went home for the night.

Early the next day, we went to put the wheels back on the truck and get it unloaded.  We found that one wheel and tire had crossed the highway fence and landed a few feet from where the truck stopped, but we never found the other one.  Ray got another wheel and tire from Patrons Oil Cooperative where he had purchased the truck.  After we had the wheels and tires back on the truck, we discovered that the truck box loaded with beets had slid into the left side of the truck cab and that the beets could not be unloaded until the box had been slid back.  Glenn had the box slid back into the proper position at the Lindstad Alignment shop.  While the truck was parked in the road ditch that night, someone siphoned the gas out of the tank and stole Ray’s log chain that was in the cab.  I remember asking Ray if we should lock the doors, and he had replied that nobody could take it without a set of duals.

By noon we were back to harvesting sugar beets.  Ray and I stopped at the Jail to file an accident report with the Sheriff who resided in the Butte County Jail