A woman who police say was drunk when she crashed her vehicle into a tree was upgraded to serious condition Monday, Fort Wayne police said. Just before 8:30 p.m.A father and son on their way home from selling scrap at a junkyard died Wednesday morning when their pickup truck was hit by a train in Huntington.
Wally Bowers, 44, and Nathan Bowers, 22, were both killed instantly when the elder Bowers pulled into the path of an oncoming train on Hitzfield Street south of West Park Drive in Huntington, Huntington County Coroner Leon Hurlburt said.
Both died of blunt-force trauma about 11:15 a.m., Hurlburt said.
The two Huntington men were on their way home from selling scrap metal to a junkyard, a favorite pastime of Wally’s, said his wife, Rebecca Boyer, 54.
Nathan Bowers wanted extra money for New Year’s Eve, Boyer said. He had located some scrap to sell, so he and his father went out together to collect it. They made $10, she said.
Wally Bowers was an outgoing man who loved to socialize, Boyer said. She was amazed by the number of people who have shown up at her house or called with their condolences.
Nathan Bowers seemed to inherit his father’s gift for gab. He loved to chat people up and party, she said.
“They both had hearts of gold,” she said.
Wally and his son seemed to be inseparable, and it is almost a small mercy that they died together, Boyer said.
“I couldn’t have been able to handle the one without the other,” she said.
