The usually quiet neighbourhood of Ashton Road was on Saturday afternoon [September 23rd, 1916] the scene of the first fatal accident in which the Luton Tramways have been concerned since the inauguration of the service some eight years ago.
It involved the death from injuries within a few minutes of a little girl named Winifred May Dickens, aged two and a half years, whose father (Pte F. W. Dickens) is serving with the 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment in Egypt.
The little girl's home was at 3 Harcourt Street, and it seems that shortly after five o'clock on Saturday afternoon her mother, Agnes, sent her with a halfpenny to get some sweets at the grocer's shop kept by Mr Howlett at 76 Ashton Road. The shop is situated at the corner of Harcourt Street with Ashton Road, and as the tramway passes along the road, Mrs Dickens came out of doors with her little girl to see her safely across the road.
After seeing her enter the shop the mother returned up the passage to her backway, and a minute or two after a neighbour burst in with the tragic news, "Your Winnie is killed".
From graphic accounts provided by eye-witnesses, it seems that after being served at the shop the little girl bounded across the pavement and made direct for her home across the road. As she stepped from the pavement tramcar No 1 [pictured a few years earlier in New Bedford Road and showing the guards fitted to it] was proceeding down Ashton Road in the direction of the town, but she appeared quite oblivious to its presence and ran across the track literally in front of the car.
As there is a somewhat sharp decline at this spot, Motorman Grenville Lawrence Towers, of 99 Ashton Road, had his brakes applied at the time. As soon as he saw the child dart out from the pavement he made a big effort to pull up, shouted and sounded his gong. But the whole affair happened so quickly that he had little or no chance.
The child practically got across the track, but was unable to run clear in time, and was struck by the off-side part of the front of the car. The effect of the blow was to release the life-guard, and before the tram could be brought to a halt the little girl's body was on the pilot-guard.
Pte Walter Boskett, a Bedfordshire Territorial living in Ashton Road and who was home from Halton Park on leave, extricated the child from under the car and took her in his arms at full speed to her home.
The little girl was quite unconscious, and although the only external injuries noticeable were a wound on the temple and an abrasion on the nose, Mrs Dickens said she could see she was dead as soon as Pte Boskett laid her down in the sitting room. Dr Lewis was summoned, but he could only confirm the mother's first fears.
The little girl was one of five Dickens children, the eldest a boy of nine and the youngest a six-month-old girl whom her father, who had been serving abroad for 14 months, had not seen.
At an inquest the following Tuesday, a jury returned a verdict of accidental death, exonerated the driver from any blame and expressed sympathy with the parents.
Tramways manager Mr Wray also expressed sincere sorrow and sympathy and said the company would contribute to the funeral expenses. Luton's trams were carrying 60,000 passengers a week and this was the first fatal accident they had had.
The girl's funeral was held at Luton General Cemetery on September 29th. The Rev G. Roberts Hern, pastor of Park Street Baptist Church, conducted the service.
[The Luton Reporter: Monday, September 25th, 1916. The Luton News: Thursday, September 28th, 1916]