The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-07-21
ID v us :
By TOM JACKSON

eastern North Carolina. In the
trunk of the car was a mot
lev assortment of Samsonite, laun-
dry bags, and even couple OF shoe
boxes. Behind the seat, blocking out
most of the back window were
three paper bags, two sweatshirts
and a hatbox. One of the paper
bags had in it a jar of green tenn
pera paint and some other art sup
plies piled in on top of swim trunks
and suntan lotion.
Twelve miles out of town on the
way to the beach for week with
moving lawns and running Dads
errands left behind what
could be more carefree? The Ford
slowed and pulled in at a service
station. Here the group purchased
1873 gallons of gasoline, four Cokes,
and four beers 1.-TWO each for the
Junior and the Graduate suddenly.
Fifty-three minutes later the
Ford stopped again. One of the
Freshmen got out "a boy) of the
back seat and shifted to the front.
Three of the group got drink of
water at the service station and
got back in the car. The Ford again
Tapped the miles of electric poles
and billboards through one little
village and on toward the beach.
Then someone started humming
a few bars of at Takes A Worried
Man :" and soon the whole
crowd was singing, maybe to make
the time pass faster, maybe because
they felt good. The driver uncon-
sciously pushed the accelerator just
a bit harder as his mood scared
with the music 60, 65, GO and
leveled off just short of rs miles
per hour not bad on a good
road with new tires and a mechan-
ically sound automobile.
The Ford climbed up, up, up the
long, low hill and the speedometer
, dropped back to 10 just as they
went over the top.
, The driver was the first to see
the aluminium and steel wall made
l by the back of the huge moving
van almost stopped in the road. He
) saw it about two seconds before he
, saw the red milk cow walk slowly
: off the pavement as if stopping
: trucks was nothing unusual to her.
His reflexes were good, the
: Ford's tires left twin curving black
marks as it swerved to the left to
go around there wasn't room
l to stop. That brief moment wher
his heart felt stopped had passed
} before the Ford plowed head on in
l to the new station wagon with 8
mother, a father, three kids, and g
load of camping equipment com
: ing around the other side of the
truck.
, One of the girls was screaming
: the other had her eyes closed, ant
: the four boys We're silent in thai
2 brief instant before the impact
5 The sound of yielding, tearing met
: al and shattering glass mingled
with the screaming of tires on THE
= pavement. Then a seconds silence
= and more sounds. One of the kid
S that had been in the station Wagon
5 began crying Historically as thu
pain shot up her leg from a pinl
e splinter of bone poking through tn
: skin :. the graduate student coult
f only gurgle, you see, the horn but
4 ton had been pushed into his RICH
r lung by the steering post on,
, of his front teeth was broken of
and imbeded in the twiGted steerin
wheel. The girls screaming ha,
silenced now she lay with on
, leg out the door -. watery bloc,
t ran past the glass splinters in he
4 eyes and trickled down to mingl
, with that coming from what wa
left of her face. The other girl la,
, half under slowly coloring water
wedged in a ditch beneath the cal
The boy who was supposed to be
Senior in the fall was on the pave
ment :. his face was smeared wit
green tempera paint and flake
of asphalt. The freshman boy NOV
ed time or two before he becam
! still. He probably never noticed tn
color of the puddle formed as mo
tor oil trickled in rivulets with hi
blood. The man driving the statiol
wagon was the first to find he wa
able to move . he picked up on
OF his daughters ears off the high
way and just sat looking at it.
Il Gruesome Perhaps, but it ca
happen. Last year 1880 peopl
were killed and 100000 were in
jured in traffic accidents. It's no
so hard to be careful so try t,
drive little safer be especial
ly safe if you are driving in :
heavily travelled area such as tn,
Dare coast.