This afternoon all that is mortal of Dossie P. Traylor will be lowered into a grave in Willow Dale cemetery. A weeping, broken-hearted mother, and a young sister will return to their little home on Pine street—hopeless and forlorn. Not only because a son and brother has gone prematurely to the grave, but because there is no one left in the house as bread winner.
But here is the point. If there had been a proper enforcement of the rules governing the speed of automobiles, young Traylor would be alive tonight, the little home on Pine street would not be listening to the knock of the poverty of coming years.
On whose hands does the blood of this young man fall?
In the inquest conducted over the body of Traylor three men testified tht they saw the Ford roadster and the Hudson car it was following driving on main streets of Goldsboro at a reckless rate of speed. H. J. Nealy, one of the men under arrest, admits that he was driving about 30 or 35 miles an hour.
Mind you that the death car was seen traveling recklessly across Center street and on John street a short time before the accident. But no officers stopped it. Here is the testimony.
Mark Lane said:
“About 10 minutes later I heard a noise like a car running at great speed: looked down Center street toward City Hall and saw two cars that looked like the two that had just passed me at the corner, going at great speed with the Hudson in the lead.
Walter Jones said:
Was standing at Fire Station No. 1. I saw a Hudson sedan and a Ford roadster coming down John street going south. Harold Grady was on the running board of the Ford and was cursing and telling the driver to catch the Hudson—he wanted to beat the driver of the Hudson. I think the two cars were running 35 or 40 miles per hour.
W.M. Gardner said:
I was sitting at corner of John and Ash streets about 10:15 last night. A Hudson car passed with a Ford roadster following, with Harold Grady on the running board of the Ford, and both going at 35 or 40 miles an hour.
After again asking the question on whose hands does Traylor’s blood fall, we quote an editorial in The News of June 12 concerning violation of speed laws in the city:
If the city of Goldsboro hasn’t some sort of speed limit, some sort of driving regulation, then it would be well to have such enacted at once, and then to have these enforced. Lfor just as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, there will be a continuance of accidents and perhaps fatalities if reckless and careless automobile drivers are allowed to continue to dash through and across the streets, as they are doing at the present time.
On June 13, The News had another editorial which gives the heart of the whole matter:
The safety of the city is being sacrificed to a false notion of economy. We are losing $10 to save $1. We are running the risk of stultifying our official consciences in a vain effort to convict a tax-paying public that we can run the government more cheaply that our predecessors. One thing we can congratulate ourselves about: We have been exceedingly lucky that gunmen and bandits have found easy picking elsewhere. Sometimes we may not have luck with us.
When will the city wake up to the need of more policemen?
Citizens of Goldsboro, we leave the case to you.
From the editorial page of the Goldsboro News, Tuesday morning, Aug. 10, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1926-08-10/ed-1/seq-4/
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