1961 — June 30, Wrong-way, CA speeding pickup hits CA Station Wagon, Jean, NV — 11
— 11 National Safety Council. Accident Facts 1970 Edition. 1970, p. 63.[1]
— 11 Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Nevada Leads 1st Day Deaths,” 7-2-1961, p. 1.
— 11 Press-Telegram, Long Beach, CA. “Crash of Car, Truck Kills 11 in Nevada.” 7-1-1961, p.1
Narrative Information
July 1: “Associated Press. A spectacular two-vehicle accident in Nevada killed 11 persons Friday night, providing a grim start to the toll of traffic dead for the long Independence Day weekend. The Nevada Highway Patrol said a pickup truck speeding along the wrong lane of a four-lane highway slammed head-on into a station wagon. The Highway Patrol said the truck was heading south on a northbound lane of U.S. 91, the major highway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, when it hit the station wagon. The wagon was crammed with nine persons – three generations of the same family. The truck, equipped with a camper top, carried an adult couple. All died before ambulance arrived. All were from California. The only survivor of the crash was a cocker spaniel in the back of the pickup truck.
“Patrolman Richard McDermott said the truck went past a highway patrol checking station at Jean, Nev., about 32 miles southwest of Las Vegas, at about 60 mph, on the wrong side of the roadway. It hit the station wagon 100 yards past the station.
“The Highway Patrol fatality list: In the station wagon: Driver George Neal Gibson, 35, Big Creek, Calif., and wife Laura, 31; George’s brother John, 48, San Bernardino; parents Wilburn Gibson, 77, and wife Stella 75, San Bernardino; George and Laura’s children, Tommy, 11, Margie, 10, Marilyn, 8, and Sherrill, 7.
“In the truck – Leo Hollis Watkins, 52, and wife Floree Francis, 49…Manhattan Beach….” (Press-Telegram, Long Beach, CA. “Crash of Car, Truck Kills 11 in Nevada.” 7-1-1961, p. 1.)
July 2, UPI: “The National Safety Council Saturday night feared that a record number of deaths might be set ‘or a Fourth of July holiday or any summer holiday during this Independence Day period. “The rate is alarming,” said a council spokesman, “it threatens to break the highway fatality rate for any summer holiday.” A United Press International count at 11:30 p.m. EDT, more than 28 hours after the holiday started at 6 p.m. Friday, showed 134 persons dead in traffic. The overall holiday death breakdown: traffic 134, drownings 27, miscellaneous 22, total 183.
“Sparsely populated Nevada, usually low in traffic deaths, led the nation with 13. Eleven of these
died Friday night when a speeding pickup truck, driving on the wrong side of a highway south of
Las Vegas smashed into a station wagon and wiped out three generations of a vacationing California family….
“The council said by 6 p.m. Saturday, 75 persons would have died in traffic accidents during a
non-holiday weekend….
“The council reported that: The death count was running ahead of last year’s Fourth of July toll when 439 persons died. The 1960 holiday was a three-day weekend, as compared to this tear’s four days.
“The extra day for holiday trips and motor carnage this year could mean the final death count will be closer to 500. The record for a July 4 holiday — and for all summer holidays — is the 491 total of the four-day 1950 July 4 weekend. This ‘year’s death count was also running at close to double the rate of the last four-day July 4 holiday, in 1957, when 426 persons died in traffic….” (Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Nevada Leads 1st Day Deaths,” 7-2-1961, p. 1.)
Sources
National Safety Council. “Greatest Number of Deaths in a Single Motor-Vehicle Accident.” Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.
Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Nevada Leads 1st Day Deaths,” 7-2-1961, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=7885798&sterm
Press-Telegram, Long Beach, CA. “Crash of Car, Truck Kills 11 in Nevada.” 7-1-1961, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=46067850&sterm
[1] This was, when the NSC study was published in 1970, the deadliest “passenger car-truck” event in US history.