Newsman Just Along For The Ride
Finds New Story At Old Scene
(Editor’s Note: Battalion News
Editor Dan Louis has written a
story based on both fact and fic
tion. As a reporter on several
daily papers in the state, Louis
has dealt with the very thesis of
this story many times. Read it
and feel the way a reporter feels
every time he covers raw death.)
Albert Davidson had just gotten
back from a cup of coffee at Al’s
Grill and stepped into the news
room just in time to hear the De
partment of Public Safety radio
crackle. He didn’t understand the
entire message, but he did catch
one word, “major.”
After 27 years in the newspaper
business that one word on the DPS
squawk-box was enough to spell a
TWO DANCES
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DEC. 26
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possible story to Davidson, or A1
to his friends.
While he looked around the news
room to find someone to cover this
one, he thought about the first
“major” he was sent out on. Surely
his boss didn’t know it was so bad
when he made the assignment. A1
could remember that he had to go
home after he wrote the story and
that he was still too sick to eat
the next day. He had never known
a human, body had so much blood.
He spotted Paul Belton. Paul
would be a good man to send on
this one, and he knew how to use
a camera. A1 looked at the big
clock on the wall, it showed 10:23
p.m. Paul would have plenty of
time before 1 a.m., when he was
due to get off.
HE CALLED Paul over. “Check
out this ‘major’ with the DPS dis-
Pedestrians Face
Holiday Hazards
Motorists are not the only ones
who are killed in holiday accidents.
Studies have revealed one out of
four Christmas accidents involves
pedestrians.
Forty per cent of these acci
dents occur between 4 p.m. and
midnight Christmas Eve and 75
per cent of the total happen dur
ing the first 30 hours of the holi
day.
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patcher and go on out,” he told
the 24-year-old general assignment
reporter.
Paul wheeled around on his heel
and went to his phone. A1 knew
Paul could handle the job, he had
been with the paper about a year
and a half and had done a fine
job so far. Most important for
this job, Paul had become familiar
with death.
Paul was headed for the door.
He’s fast, too, A1 thought. “Hey,
Paul,” the veteran called, “I think
I’ll go with you.”
A1 thought about his first
“major.” That was back when the
cars didn’t have all the power they
do today. He remembered how he
imagined the twisted and torn
limbs on his way to the scene.
There was a mother and child
killed in that one.
It wasn’t really a child, just a
baby, three years old. As he went
back over the years he remem
bered the little one’s blood as being
redder than that of the adults. He
also knew that it takes less to
crush the little one’s body and
spill its insides all over the road.
AL HAD NEVER been able to
decide which was worse, to see a
lifeless child spread out in a
bloody mess or to hear an orphaned
child cry for his mother and father
as they are loaded up to be carried
to the morgue.
The company car pulled out of
the parking lot and headed for the
accident, seven miles north of the
city limits on Highway 31. Paul
was driving. A1 was along just
for the ride this time. It had been
a long time since he had run a
“major.”
A1 wondered which killer it
would be this time, speed, alcohol
or just plain carelessness. It
would probably one of them, it
usually was.
An ambulance screamed past
the newsmen. The guys in the
ambulance had the rough job. A1
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AGGIES NOTICE
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had decided a long time ago that
was the job he would least want.
They are the ones who get to re
assemble the bodies and wrestle
with the torn, dirty, sticky chunks
of flesh.
THE CAR began to slow down.
A1 could see the flashing ’ red
lights ahead. They came to a halt
behind the white patrol car. Two
bodies had already been covered by
sheets—completely covered.
A1 looked hard at the sheets.
The blood on one was very red, as
red as the blood of the little ones.
There was something about this
blood. It made him tighten in the
pit of his stomach, he wanted to
cry.
His agony was halted by a
familiar voice. It was Don Jor
dan, a student at A&M who Al’s
daughter Alice dated. Don was
going to swing by Alice’s school
and bring her home for the Christ
mas holidays. A1 didn’t realize
they were to be in today. Alice
must be at home.
Don was talking again. No, not
talking, he was screaming and
crying. He was apologizing, “I’m
sorry, Mr. Davidson, I didn’t want
to do it. I’d rather be dead.”
Al’s stomach tightened again.
He had to work for each breath.
He began to cry as he worked his
way back to the sheet with the
very red blood on it.
He knew now that that blood
was the blood of a baby. His baby,
his only baby, Alice.
He knelt by the quiet baby. He
didn’t look, he just knelt, cried and
looked at Don, sobbing like a child.
A1 knew that he had to explain
to Don that he understood. But
how could he. He didn’t.
Ready To Serve You
Thousands of ambulances have probably These are the little wagons that pick up the
been serviced and made ready for action pieces from traffic victims and take them
in anticipation of a bloody holiday season, to be reassembled for burial.
World’s Deadliest Battlefield
Lies Between You And Home
By GERRY BROWN
Battalion News Editor
At the West Gate entrance to
the campus stands a monument
Colorful Safety Slogans, Signs
Add To Safe Driving Campaign
Every ^year traffic safety com
mittees and departments of public
safety all over the United States
launch campaigns to convince the
American motorist that it isn’t
always the other fellow who gets
killed in traffic accidents.
One of the more colorful aspects
of these difficult campaigns is the
safety slogans and signs that re
sult.
Texas’ own Governor’s Highway
Safety Commission has compiled a
list of these slogans, from points
all over the country. Such as:
A sign at Hondo, Tex.: “This
Is God’s Country. Don’t Drive
Through It Like Hell!”
From the Connecticut State
Police: ‘He who has one for the
road gets trooper for chaser.”
New British safety slogan:
“Steer Clear of ‘Tavern Fog’.”
Mississippi road sign: “Drive
Carefully! No Hospital Within 50
Miles!”
“You can kill, so drive with
skill.”
“It’s nice to be important, but
it’s more important to be nice—
especially in traffic.”
guaranteed gift
Sure to please or we will exchange it for
another from our stock.
THE EXCHANGE STORE
“Serving Texas Aggies”
*
dedicated in memory of Lt. Kyle
N. Drake Jr., “who died for
democracy on Iwo Jima.”
On a metal plaque mounted into
the wall of the Memorial Student
Center are the names of Aggies
who died in the World Wars.
In Spence Park a block of
granite signifies a tribute to the
students and faculty members who
fought and died in the Spanish
American War.
Yet, these represent but a few
of the innumerable memorials
which stand both on our campus
and throughout our nation in
memory of the American soldiers
who have died in battles from
Bunker Hill to Heartbreak Ridge.
THE MEMORY of these indi
viduals is well* preserved but
where are the memorials for the
Americans who have died in auto
accidents since 1900?
Ironically, more people have died
on the highways than the total of
all the Americans killed in U. S.
Wars from 1775 until today.
A new nation was forged by the
8,695 Americans who died in the
Revolutionary War and War of
1812. The young nation’s survival
was assured by the 13,283 U, S.
soldiers who were killed in the
War with Mexico.
When Civil War threatened to
split our country in two, 529,332
soldiers gave their lives in the con- j
flict and 33 years later 2,446 more
died to free Spain’s colonial em
pire.
DURING TWO World Wars
and a Korean “police action”
Americans gave their lives in the
sum of 578,637 fathers and sons.
The total of all these American
citizens who wrote their lives on
the pages of history stands at
1,130,393.
In contrast to this, 1,3 78,851
men, women and children have died
as a result of highway accidents
since automobiles first appeared in
this country slightly over 60 years
ago.
In mockery to these figures,
these same history books which
tell of the bloody battlegrounds d
war will list the automobile as one
of the great inventions of our
society.
Just remember, the highway is |
the deadliest battlefield on this
earth.
So Far This Year A&M’s '
Record Shows No Fatalities
No A&M student has as ye't
become a traffic fatality since the
beginning of school, but chances
are great that this record will be
marred before Jan. 3 when classes
resume.
Four Aggies were already dead
when The Battalion printed ics
special safety edition last year’.
The four lives were taken in
three accidents which were iron
ically similar.
In all three tragedies only the
death cars were involved.
The three one-car accidents oc
curred at night, apparently due to
driver error or carelessness, since
no contributing factors other than
night-time visibility could be ac
counted for.
The first Aggie killed was Her
bert Rogers Jr., a senior from
Hebbronville whose car went out
LOU and Mrs. LOU
Wish Each Of You A
'‘Merry Christmas”
"Happy New Year”
and
A SAFE JOURNEY HOME
LOUPOTS
of control and skidded on a Bryan
street Oct. 17, 1961. Ennis R.
Holmes, a passenger, receive!
multiple injuries.
Only four days later, freshman
Robert W. Hall of Fort Worth was
killed as he and three other Aggies
were driving from a dance at
Texas Woman’s University during
the TCU corps trip. The three
other freshmen received minor in
juries. The driver was believed to
have fallen asleep.
Less than a month later, two
more freshmen died together in a
traffic accident near Hearne when
their vehicle rolled almost 500 feet
from the roadway.
Clebeart H. Jones, of Rosebui
and Patrick L. James of Longue^
were killed when their car flipped
six times after failing to make a
turn.
A NEW YEAR
A NEW START
Winter term begins
Jan. 2 Day School
Jan. 3 Night School
Pick the Modern Road to
Success
Quick, practical training leads to
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