Baxter Bell, 6, Suffers Concussion, Other Children Upset When School Truck Turns Over, Sept. 12, 1924

Serious Accident of Currituck School Bus. . . 6-Year-Old Boy Sustains Painful Injuries When 20 Children Were Upset at Sligo

The custom of entrusting the lives of school children in the hands of boys under 16 years of age in the school trucks used for transporting pupils to and from school may be broken up, at least in this section of the state, since Jack Bell, the 6-year-old son of Baxter Bell, Clerk of the Superior Court in Currituck, was severely injured Monday evening when a school truck carrying some 20 pupils upset near Sligo. The truck was driven by Titus Knight, a pupil of the Currituck school, who is under 16 years of age.

When the truck upset near the home of Dr. Cowell, the little Bell boy sustained a deep cut of the right forehead and extending to the upper lid of the right eye, and is now confined in bed with a concussion of the brain.

Helen Williams, the 8-year-old daughter of David Williams of Shawboro, suffered from contusions of various parts of the body, but her condition is not to be considered serious.

Baxter Bell, the father of the injured boy, says that he had repeatedly protested to the school authorities against the practice of allowing boys to drive the school trucks. O.B. Jones of Elizabeth City, who was passing the truck at the time it turned over, is absolved from blame in connection with the accident. Mr. Jones says he was driving his Ford coupe behind the truck when he gave the signal, and the driver pulled over to the sider of the road, which is a state highway. He then passed the truck, going he says at about 12 miles an hour. He was accompanied by Mrs. Jones, who looked back and saw the truck turn over in the ditch. The ditch is about eight feet wide and three feet deep and several of the children fell in the water.

Mr. Jones rendered prompt aid to the children and took the Bell boy to the home of Dr. Cowell, who gave aid promptly and after he learned it was Baxter Bell’s child, owing to the seriousness of the case, Dr. John Saliba of Elizabeth City was called in consultation.

In an effort to learn if Mr. Jones was to blame several people looked over his car and found no trace of any collision with the truck. The plausible theory is that the driver of the truck steered it over too near the ditch, and being inexperienced with a truck heavily loaded, it slipped in the ditch and upset, before he was aware of his situation.

From the Elizabeth City Independent, Friday, Sept. 12, 1924