The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1935-10-10

/ "A car careening and rolling down
bank, battering and smashing its oc-
cupants every inch of the way, can
wrap itself so thoroughly around a
tree that front and rear bumpers in
terlock, requiring an acetylene torch
to cut them apart. In a recent case of
that sort, they found the old lady,
who, had been sitting in back, lying
across the lap Of her daughter, who
was in front, each soaked in her own
and the others blood indistinguish-
ably, each SO shattered and broken
that there was no point whatever in
an autopsy to determine whether it
was broken neck or ruptured heart
that caused death.
| Overturning cars specialize in GER
tain injuries. Cracked pelvis, for in
stance, guaranteeing agonizing
months in bed, motionless, perhaps
crippled for life-broken spine re-
sulting from sheer sidewise twist
the minor details Of smashed knees
and splintered shoulder blades caused
by crashing into the side Of the car as
she goes over with the swirl Of an
insane roller coaster-and the lethal
consequence Of broken ribs, which
puncture hearts and lungs with their
raw ends. The consequent internal
hemorrhage is no less dangerous be-
cause it is the pleural instead of the
abdominal cavity that is filling with
blood.
Flying glass-safety glass is by no
means universal yet-contributes
much more than its share to the spec
tacular side of accidents. It doesn't
merely cut-the fragments are driven
in as if a cannon loaded with broken
bottles had been fired in your face,
and silver in the eye, travelling with
such force, means certain blindness.
A leg Or arm stuck through the wind
shield will cut clean to the bone
through vein, artery and muscle like
a piece of beef under the butchers
knife, and it takes little time to lose a
fatal amount of blood under such cir
cumstances. Even safety glass may
not be wholly safe when the car
crashes something at high speed. You
hear picturesque tales of how flying
human body will make neat hole in
the stuff with it's head-the Shout
ders stick-the glass holds-and the
raw, keen edge of the hole decapi-
tates the body as neatly as guillo-
tine.
Or, to continue with the decapita-
ton motif, going off the road into a
post-and-rail fence can put you be-
yond worrying about other injuries
Immediately when a rail comes
through the windshield and tears off
your head with its splintery end-not
as neat a job but thoroughly efficient
Bodies are often found with their
shoes off and their feet all broken
out Of shape. The shoes are back or
the floor of the car, empty and with
their laces still neatly tied. That is
the kind of impact produced by mod
ern speeds.
! But all that is routine in every
American community. To be remem.
bered Individually by. doctors and po-
licemen, you have to do something as
grotesque as the lady who burst the
windshield with her head, splashine
| splinters all over the other occupants
of the car, and then, as the car rolled
over, rolled with it down the edge OF
the windshield frame and cut hel
throat from ear to ear. Or park or
the pavement! too near e curve :. al
Enight and stand in front of the tail
| light as you take off the spare tire
(which will immortalize you in some.
fbOdy's memory as the fellow who was
mashed three feet broad and two
inches thick by the impact Of a heavy
duty truck against the rear of his own
car. Or be as original as the pair OF
youths who were thrown out of ar
open roadster this spring-throwu
clear-but: each broke a windshield
| post with his head in passing and the
whole top of each skull, down to the
eyebrows, was missing. Or snap off q
nine-inch tree and get yourself i'm
paled by ragged branch.
! None Of all that is scare-fiction;
| it is just the horrible raw material
Of the years satisfies as seen in the
ordinary course Of duty by policemen
and doctors, picked at random. The
surprising thing is that there is So