— 21 Jacobs. “Deadliest crash in NC history…Fayetteville.” Fayetteville Observer, 6-4-2017.

— 21 National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).

— 21 National Safety Council. Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.^[1]

— 21 United States Department of Labor. Employment Security Review, Vol. 24, 1957, p. 37.

— 20 Daily Times-News, Burlington NC. “Wreck Toll Now Standing at 20 Dead,” 6-8-1957, 2.

— 20 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 724.

— 20 The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Jury Blames 20 Deaths…Dead…Driver,” 6-13-1957.

— 19 Daily Times-News, Burlington NC. “Death Toll Climbs to 19…Crash,” 6-7-1957, p. 1.

— 18 Legeros. North Carolina Deadliest Disasters Database.

— 17 Evening Telegram, Rocky Mount, NC. “17 People Die in Highway Tragedy,” 6-6-1957.

Narrative Information

Jacobs/Fayetteville Observer: “Eastover…Sixty years later, the memories are still clear…Why it happened — why a truck jammed with farm workers pulled in front of a loaded truck with horrific results — is less clear. The driver responsible was flung from the truck’s cab and crushed along with half of the 41 passengers he was hauling….

“U.S. 301…was a main route for migrant crews, seasonal workers who traveled up the East Coast picking vegetables. Often packed like cattle onto the backs of large trucks, they’d leave temporary camps before daybreak and work all day in local fields.

“That’s where a crew of 41 workers, most from southern Florida, were jammed into an 8-by-15-foot paneled pen on the back of a 1 1/2-ton truck on the morning of June 6, 1957. A 20-year-old driver, Thomas Mackey, pulled out of a camp near Mount Olive, headed east on what is now U.S. 13 for bean fields near Dunn. About 7 a.m., the truck reached a stop sign at a Y-turn near the Eastover-Central Elementary School nine miles north of Fayetteville. The truck didn’t stop, instead taking a sharp right turn onto 301 into the path of a tractor-trailer loaded with potatoes. Witnesses said the potato truck’s driver, Gilbert Peters, had no chance to stop in time….

“The impact shredded the cab of the farm truck, puncturing the gas tank and creating a wall of fire, according to witnesses. Everyone in the cabin probably died instantly….

“Eighteen workers died on the roadway that morning. About two dozen survivors were taken to Highsmith Hospital in Fayetteville and Betsy Johnson Hospital in Dunn. More than half arrived in critical condition and three, including an infant, died later. The death toll eventually reached 21. At the time, it was the worst highway accident in American history, and it remains the deadliest crash ever in North Carolina….

“It also was determined that, while the driver of the migrant truck was at fault in causing the wreck, the practice of “packing” migrant workers into trucks was not illegal. According to a report from the state Employment Security Commission at the time, officials had no legal right to stop trucks overloaded with workers, unless the vehicle exceeded legal road weight….” [It is noted that legislation was later passed to address this issue.] (Jacobs, Chick. “Deadliest crash in NC history was right outside Fayetteville.” Fayetteville Observer, 6-4-2017.)

Newspapers at the Time

June 6: “Fayetteville, N.C. (AP) — A flat-bed truck loaded with migrant workers and a tractor-trailer slammed together in a fiery crash at a road intersection today and killed 17 persons. The State Highway Patrol said 21 persons were taken to hospitals in this area and 14 of them were in critical condition….

“Fire that broke out in the truck caused most of the deaths, the highway patrol said. “It looked like a ball of fire,” said Joe Lozak of Berwick. Pa., who saw the crash in the rear-view mirror of his potato truck. “Men, women and children lying all over the highway. I think the impact killed them not the fire.”

“The patrol said 41 laborers, from several states, were aboard the truck which pulled into the path of the tractor-trailer at the intersection of U.S. Highway 301 and N.C. Highway 102, nine miles north of Fayetteville, at 7:15 a.m.

“One laborer said the workers, after camping overnight near Mt. Olive, N.C., were en route to Dunn, N.C., to harvest beans….

“…the tractor-trailer driver was slightly hurt. The flat-bed truck driver was among those killed….” (Evening Telegram, Rocky Mount, NC. “17 People Die in Highway Tragedy,” 6-6-1957, p. 1.)

June 7: “Fayetteville, N.C. (AP) – The death toll of a fiery two-truck collision near here reached 19 today, equaling the nation’s record for the worst truck accident in history. Willie Gary of Syracuse, N.Y., died in a hospital here from injuries received in the accident near here yesterday. Some 13 persons died at the scene, the others in hospitals.

“The accident occurred at a Y intersection of U.S. 301 and N.C. 102 when a tractor-trailer truck loaded with potatoes slammed into a flat-bed truck crammed with migrant Negro farm workers … The workers’ truck caught fire. The State Highway Patrol said no charges had been filed pending a full probe of the accident….The accident occurred when the flat-bed truck carrying the workers ‘packed like cattle’ under a canvas awning pulled into the path of a larger truck loaded with potatoes….” (Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC. “Death Toll Climbs to 19…Crash,” June 7, 1957, p. 1.)

June 8: “Fayetteville, N.C. (AP) – The nation’s worst two-truck highway wreck has claimed its 20^th victim, one more than the previous record set in a similar wreck in Texas in 1947. Thursday’s fiery collision at a highway intersection near here claimed two more victims yesterday….Several of the surviving injured still are in critical condition.” (Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC. “Wreck Toll Now Standing at 20 Dead,” 6-8-1957, p. 2)

June 13: “Fayetteville, N.C. (AP) – A coroner’s jury held last night that the driver [age 19] of a migrant farm workers’ truck was to blame for last Thursday’s collision which claimed the lives of 20 of the workers….” (The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Jury Blames 20 Deaths Upon Dead Truck Driver,” 6-13-1957, p. 1.)

Sources

Daily Times-News, Burlington NC. “Death Toll Climbs to 19 From Fayetteville Crash,” June 7, 1957, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=37832091

Daily Times-News, Burlington NC. “Wreck Toll Now Standing at 20 Dead,” 6-8-1957, 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=37832111

Evening Telegram, Rocky Mount, NC. “17 People Die in Highway Tragedy,” 6-6-1957, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=141825680&sterm

Jacobs, Chick. “Deadliest crash in NC history was right outside Fayetteville.” Fayetteville Observer, 6-4-2017. Accessed 2-10-2020 at: https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20170604/deadliest-crash-in-nc-history-was-right-outside-fayetteville

Legeros, Mike. North Carolina Deadliest Disasters Database. 8-18-2009 update. Accessed at: http://www.legeros.com/history/nc/disasters.shtml

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).

National Safety Council. “Greatest Number of Deaths in a Single Motor-Vehicle Accident.” Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.

The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Jury Blames 20 Deaths Upon Dead Truck Driver,” 6-13-1957, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=103674066

United States Department of Labor. Employment Security Review, Vol. 24, 1957, p. 37

[1] Incorrectly, however, has the location as Fayetteville, California.

1957 — June 6, Tractor-trailer and labor truck collide, burn, near Fayetteville, NC — 21