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Teen Commits Suicide Immediately After Car Accident Believing He Killed Someone — But They Were Actually Fine

A troubled youngster in the 1930s took a sad and drastic step after he grossly misunderstood what had happened after he struck a car with his own vehicle

3 min readMar 15, 2025

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When something shocking happens, humans are unfortunately conditioned to struggle being able to take a beat and think of anything outside of that moment in time. If we did have a better ability to reset ourselves and reflect, a lot of pain and trauma could be avoided. Consider the case of a teenager during the Great Depression, who got into a car accident and immediately killed himself by the side of the road — thinking he had killed a passenger in the other vehicle. However, as it turned out, besides some minor injuries they were actually fine.

In May, 1931, a tragedy played out on the roads of Oklahoma City. 17-year-old Ivan Van Tine accidentally drove his roadster into the trailer of a car belongings to Mr. and Mrs. J.W. House of Detroit and their two sons.

The accident occurred in the evening, and the Houses were parked along the shoulder of the road trying to make a repair on a faulty gas line. When Van Tine sped around the corner, he wasn’t expecting…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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