Speeding Car Kills Mule, Damages Wagon; Car Abandoned, Sept. 2, 1923

Mule Is Killed and Parties Narrowly Escape in Accident. . . Car Hits Wagon on LeGrange Road at Early Hour This Morning. . . Whiskey Found in Automobile

A mule belonging to the Virginia Box Company was so badly injured that it had to be hilled, and three negroes and unknown parties had a miraculous escape from death when a Studebaker touring car said to be traveling at a high rate of speed struck a wagon on the LaGrange road last night. The accident occurred about a mile and a half from the city at 12:30 this morning.

Johnnie Loftin of Miller’s Crossing, Adam Day and Archie Carnegie, all colored, were riding on the wagon when it was struck by the car. Occupants of the car disappeared immediately after the accident and no one was able to identify the car during the scene of the accident. The car bore a 1922 Goldsboro license and was number 1985. Deputy Sheriff L.O. Rhodes took the automobile into his possession.

According to Loftin, who was driving the two-mule team, he was headed toward Miller’s Crossing when he saw the car approaching at a high rate of speed. He declares that he drove into the ditch on the right hand side of the road when he saw the reckless pace the car was approaching, but not far enough to avoid the left-hand mule from being struck by the automobile.

The large touring car made a complete turn around on the impact and first arrivals on the scene found ?? back in the direction of Miller’s Crossing and one side. It was badly demolished. Adam Day, the elder of the negroes, leaped from the wagon just before the crash, while the other two were thrown some distance into a field, Carnegie suffering a lacerated lip.

The wagon had been loaded with hay and sacked oats, and the load was scattered up and down the highway for several hundred feet. A pint of whiskey was turned over to the officers as having been in the car, while a broken neck of a bottle was pointed to as evidence that other intoxicants had been found in the machine. A hat and coat found in the car were taken possession of as evidence by officers.

C.E. York and brother T.H. York arrived on the scene a few minutes after the accident and reported that the demolished car had passed them a few miles out of LaGrange and going between 35 and 40 miles an hour. They said that they drove into the ditch to avoid being struck as it went past.

From The Goldsboro News, September 2, 1923