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Show FREAK SQUEAKS Driving Dog Tops 1951's List Of Unusual, Wacky Accidents Do you ever have the feeling that things in this good old U.S.A. may just possibly be a little wacky? Well, take it from the National Safety Council you're right! The Council has just completed its annual roundup of odd accidents, acci-dents, and dazedly reports some mighty queer goings-on in the field of freak squeaks. A dog who's a hot rod driver . . . a fish that caught a fisherman . . . an airplane that crashed a red traffic traf-fic light ... a horse and wagon that collided with a sailboat . . . a garden rake that shot the raker these and many other dizzy doings do-ings indicate that things have been slightly screwy in 1951. The pooch who pined to drive a hot rod was riding in a truck with his master, William C. Hollis of Denver. As Mr. Hollis drove through Topeka, Kan., at a prudent pace, the dog stirred impatiently, reached over and planted a heavy paw on the accelerator. The truck leaped forward, went out of control, collided col-lided with a passenger car. Four persons were injured. The dog hasn't driven since. Police in Miami, Fla., are used to seeing all kinds of traffic on busy U. S. Highway 1 during the tourist season. But even they were startled when Robert Simmons, of Dayton, Ohio, landed his airplane on the highway one August afternoon, rolled through a red traffic light and nudged a truck before he stopped. Simmons had been forced down by carburetor trouble. Nobody was hurt. No traffic ticket. ' In Chicago a sailboat got on the wrong tack and collided with a horse and wagon driven by Randolph Ran-dolph Johnson, a non-nautical pilot who found himself a little at sea when confronted by a boat traveling travel-ing along a busy street on a trailer. trail-er. Damage to the boat was $500. The land forces suffered no casualties. casual-ties. Many a tired and perspiring gardener has moaned "I'm shot!" as he finished his raking. But Lincoln Lin-coln Stewart, of Columbus, Ohio, really meant it. He was raking trash in a dump when the rake struck and discharged a bullet in the trash. Stewart was shot in the ankle. And all of us who have greeted a new day by groaning, "I feel like I've been run over by a steam roller," can get a first-hand report on the feeling from eight-year-old Stanley Willoughby, of Portland, Ore., who actually underwent the experience. Fascinated by a three- ton roller, Stanley grabbed on to a pipe at its back, and walked along as it rolled. Suddenly the roller backed up. ' It knocked Stanley down, passed over his legs and hip. and imbedded him neatly into the hot, soft asphalt. He was injured only slightly. TO SKEPTICS who believe chivalry chiv-alry is dead, here is a note of comfort: Cab Driver James Deeds, of Des Moines, la., gave up his seat for a lady and did it the hard way. Helping a fair passenger unload a big sack of groceries from his cab, Deeds backed into a passing car, felt a draft, looked up in time to see the seat of his pants disappearing down the street on the door handle of the offending auto. And in Boston, Mrs. Catherine Meenan was injured in an automobile auto-mobile accident as she sat in her second floor apartment. In the street below, a car had struck a pedestrian, knocked off his shoe, hurled it 25 feet through the open window of Mrs. Meenan's living room. It hit her on the head, inflicting in-flicting scalp wounds. Yes, it looks like good old 1951 was a little goofy in spots. But, as the saying goes, aren't we all! |