One of the entrants to the American Grand Prize race held at Santa Monica, California, on 18 November 1916, was Lewis Jackson. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1890, he had served as a riding mechanic on many races, and in this event achieved his ambition to be a driver. Jackson, who was to race a Marmon, enlisted John Ghianda as his mechanician - as riding mechanics were then known.
Sadly Jackson's career as a racing driver would be terminally short. During the race his Marmon went off the road at high speed on San Vicente Boulevard and hit a palm tree. It bounced off, crashed through a lemonade stand and went into a second palm tree.
Jackson, lemonade vendor Mrs. Lena Juratsch, 43, and spectator Harold Edgington, age 24, who was at the concession stand, were killed in the accident. The first tree fell on L.B. Jenkins, 29, a motion picture cameraman for the Keystone Company working on the event, taking his life as well.
Jackson's riding mechanic Ghianda, spectator J.S. Hannigan and Miss Georgia McCall, whose role is unknown but who was likely a spectator too, were injured. A number of other spectators were also hit by Lewis' Marmon, but fortunately were unscathed.
R.I.P
