As Cars Become More Common, Accidents Increase, Some With Tragic Results, July, 1919

From The Wilson Daily Times, July 14, 1919

Three Burned in Auto Wreck

By the Associated Press

Raleigh, July 14—Three were burned to death and one injured in an automobile railroad engine collision 200 feet west of Cary station at 6:38 last evening.

The three dead are Mollie Hayes, Minnie Peace, and her daughter, Louise Peace, the latter a baby of a few months old. They were part of a party of eight colored people from East Durham.

At the point of the accident the road comes down a slight grade to the Seaboard Air Line tracks. It was down this grade that Richard Hayes, son of the dead woman, was driving. Seaboard engine No. 1519 was going west, en route for Pittsboro with the engine bell ringing.

Hayes, finding he could not stop, turned the Oakland automobile in a line with the train. The collision came about 15 feet from the grade crossing.

Seeing that an accident was inevitable, Hayes jumped, followed by his 16-year-old broth, Valier. Peter and Callis Kennedy, his wife, also escaped.

The automobile struck the engine directly under the fireman’s seat. The collision was followed almost instantaneously by the explosion if the gasoline tank, setting the car in a blaze and catching the passing tender. The automobile turned over, imprisoning the three women. Eddie McCoy, Callis Kennedy’s five-year-old son, was picked up from the ties, injured and burned but not dead, and carried to the hospital.

-=-

From The Franklin Times, Louisburg, N.C., Friday, July 11, 1919

Auto Accident

A badly smashed Ford touring car and a badly damaged Essex automobile, and injuries that proved very painful to Miss Illa May Ogburn is the result of an automobile accident which occurred at the crossing of Middle and Church Streets Friday afternoon when the cars driven by Mr. William Webb and Mr. W.T. Person ran together. From information received by us Mr. Person was going down Church Street at a fairly good speed while Mr. Webb was crossing Church Street driving the Ford, when Mr. Person’s car struck Mr. Webb’s car almost midway, forcing it back against an electric light post. Miss Ogburn was a passenger in the Ford and was painfully injured by falling glass from the windshield and shock. Her many friends will be glad to know that she is much improved. It was a most miraculous happening that there was no loss of life as the accident was a dangerous one, and must have happened from the drivers of the cars not paying the proper attention to the traffic in front of them.

-=-

From The Carolina Watchman, Salisbury, N.C., Wednesday, July 9, 1919

Auto With Four People Goes Into Yadkin River

There was considerable excitement at Grubb’s Ferry on the Yadkin River about noon Saturday when a Ford car owned and driven by B.R. Barrier of Boone township, Davidson county, took to the deep water. In the machine at the time of the accident was Mr. Barrier, Arthur Hellard, N.W. Koontz and a young son. All escaped though it was a narrow escape from drowning. A crate of eggs and other things being brought to market also went down. The machine is still in the river though it will be saved later. The accident happened when Mr. Barrier attempted to drive off the large ferry, which was not securely fastened to the bank, and skidded back when the machine struck the bank in front and followed the ferry back into the river. Fortunately the stream was about normal and this made it possible to rescue the machine.

-=-

From the Monroe Journal, July 8, 1919

Several Auto Accidents During 4^th Celebration. . . Little Daughter of Mr. Fleet Medlin Run Over. . . Dr. J.E. Ashcraft Was Returning From Accident and Collided With J.W. Laney’s Car

There were six automobile accidents in Monroe during the Fourth of July celebration Friday and several were injured, while the 3-year-old daughter of Mr. Fleet Medlin was run over and suffered cuts on the back of the head. A man from Lancaster was driving the car which injured the little Medlin girl. Her injuries are not serious.

Friday morning a six cylinder Buick precipitated in the ditch beside the road near Mr. T.C. Lee’s residence when a front spring broke, allowing the body of the car to interfere with the steering gear. No one was injured and the car was only slightly injured.

Friday afternoon about two miles north of town a Mr. May of Wadesboro driving an automobile collided with Mr. Malcom Plyler who was in a buggy. Mr. Plyler and his small brother, who was with him, were thrown from the buggy and considerably bruised. The buggy was wrecked. According to information obtained at the police station the automobilist did not stop to see who had been injured or what damage was done.

On Main street in the afternoon a young man whose name could not be learned drove his car into a post, breaking a wheel, to avoid running down a small child.

Near the Five Point Grocery Company on Windsor avenue about 9 o’clock, a Briscoe touring car driven by Mr. Thomas House was turned over when it struck a car standing by the curb. Both cars were badly damaged. There were seven other young people in the car driven by Mr. House but all escaped without injury. According to information obtained a Ford car attempted to pass the car driven by Mr. House and in trying to avoid striking it the car standing by the curb was hit. When this accident occurred residents of the vicinity put in a call for a doctor, thinking that some one had been injured when the car turned turtle. Dr. Ashcraft arrived only to find that those in the accident had already departed. He had reached the corner of Houston and Church streets on his way back home when his car collided with one driven by Mr. J.W. Laney. Messrs. A.J. Rohr, Will Porter and A.W. McCall were in the car with Mr. Laney. Mr. McCall suffered a badly sprained leg. Both cars were damaged to a considerable extent.