The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-22
81 R0ADDEATHS
W DAAe i
LISTED IN MONTH
Rural Highways Prove
Dangerous; Cities Boast
Clean Slate.
Star-News Bureau
Sir Walter Hotel
BY HENRY AVERILL

RALEIGH, Oct. 21.-Automoblles
killed 'em on the country roads, IN
the smallest and largest corpora
lions, but not a single fatal acct
dent occurred in a North Carolina
city of from 10000 to $4,000 during
the month of September, according
to records of the Highway Safety
division.
That gave a completely clean slate,
SO far as fatal accidents goes, TO
these Tar Heel towns - Concord,
Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, Gas
tonia, Goldsboro, Kannapolis (unin-
corporated but big just the same)'
Kinston, New Bern, Rocky Mount,
Roanoke Rapids, Salisbury, Shelby,
S%tatesville, Townsville and Wilson,
all of the 49, 00-25,0 900 class; High
Point, Raleigh and Wilmington, in
the 5,00O-50,000 bracket.
Asheville and Durham, of the co.
900 and up group likewise had no
fatal wrecks.
At the extremes, there was one
fatal accident in an incorporated
town of less than 500, another in
a town of the 1,000-5,000 bracket
and three in cities of 5,0oO-1o, 900;
while among the big cities, Green's
boro and Winston-Sal had one
each and Charlotte topped every
thing with no less than five.
Altogether there were 81 fatal ac'
cidents in the state, rs of them on
rural roads.
The Safety division also issued
figures on non.fatal and property
damage accidents for September, but
in comment on them it was stressed
that they are at best little more
than approximations because of the
great laxity all over the state in
observing the law requiring reports
of all accidents on the prescribed
forms.
This laxity prevails to a greater
extent in the rural sections than
in the cities, which probably &C
counts for the fact that fatal acct
dents, which can be tracked down
through news stories and Health
Board statistics, were much more
common, according to the available
figures, in rural roads than in cities,
while non-fatal and property-dam-
age crashes were much more numer-
Gus in the Incorporated places. "
Thus, if the reports were taken.
for accurate, the country led the
city Is to u in fatal accidents; while
it trailed the urban areas 1923 to
1872 in non-fatal crashes involving
injuries; 116 to 300 in property-dam-
age only wrecks; and 321 to 472 in
accidents of all kinds.
AS said, however, the figures are
not to be given too much reliance
except in the case of fatalities.
Charlotte's five fatal crashes put
Mecklenburg county out in front for
the month with eight death-dealing
accidents. Wholly rural Robson and
Guilford with its one urban death
crash) were next in line with five
each. Fender, a country county of
the first water, had four.
Buncombe, Columbus, Cumber.
land, Iredell and Wake had three
apiece. There were two fatal wrecks
in each Of Alamance, Cabarrus, Du-
pin, Durham, Forsyth, Lenoir,
Nash, Randolph. Richmond, Rock.
tngham and Surry.
One death counties were Avery,
Beaufort, Baden, Brunswick, Burke,
Cleveland, Craven, Davidson, Davie,
Castor, Greene, Harnett, Haywood,
Henderson, Lincoln, Macon, North
ampton, Onslow, Orange, Pitt, Ro.
wan, Sampson, Scotland, Transyl-
vania, Union, Vance, Wilson and
Yancey.