Roger Parker's Touring Car Now at Bottom of Neuse River, July 11, 1922

Touring Car Crashes Through Neuse River Bridge. . . Five Bridgeton Young Men Have Narrow Escape When Automobile Takes Plunge. . . Where Auto Accident Occurred Last Night. . . Roger Parker Drives Car Through Side of Neuse River Bridge, Plunging Into Water 15 Feet in Depth; Occupants With Minor Injuries and a Ducking

Roger Parker, Alec Nelson, Randolph Hanson, Rupert Denver and W.I. Taylor, five young Bridgeton white men, gambled with death in the waters of Neuse river at a point midway between New Bern and that place shortly after 8 o’clock last night and are this morning alive to tell the tail after having plunged through one side of the bridge with a five-passenger Dodge touring car driven by Mr. Parker and into water 15 feet deep. Their only injuries were minor cuts and bruises, but their experience will very likely live long in their memories.

The young men had been over in New Bern and were on their way home at the time of the accident. According to statements made to New Bernian representatives by members of the party, Mr. Parker was driving at a moderate rate of speed. Midway between New Bern and Bridgeton, they said, another car coming toward New Bern was met. In attempting swing around this and to avoid striking it, Mr. Parker’s car struck the rear fender of the New Bern-bound machine. This swung the Dodge to the right. The driver, doubtless more or less excited, cut it to the left and crashed into the railing, tearing this down for a distance of at least 40 feet and plunging into the water below.

If the young men had made a search for the deepest section of the Neuse, they could not have come nearer to locating it. At that point, the water is at least 15 feet in depth and the car settled to the bottom at once, the occupants managing to scramble out and to catch hold of the under structure of the bridge, latter, with the assistance of the occupants of the New Bern-bound car, who had stopped to render aid, they scaled the bridge timbers and lost no time in getting to their homes and changing their water-soaked clothing.

News of the accident spread rapidly and 15 minutes later a curious crowd had gathered at the point to witness the damage that had been done. The car was completely out of view below the surface of the water and it could not be located, although all occupants say that it is near the bridge itself. The railing for at least 40 feet was torn away and the steel support of the cable crossing the river was also broken when the car struck it.

The occupants of the machine declared that the car did not turn turtle in its downward flight but struck the water on end and settled on its wheels. No effort was made to salvage the machine last night.

In the past few months there have been a number of accidents on the Neuse river bridge of a similar nature but in each instance the occupants of the machine have escaped with their lives and practically unhurt.

From the front page of The New Bernian, Wednesday morning, July 12, 1922