Greenville, AL Automobile Crashes Off Bridge, Jan 1939

PROBE CRASH IN WHICH 7 PERISH.

ONLY ONE SURVIVES TUMBLE OF AUTO INTO ALABAMA CREEK OFF UNRAILED BRIDGE.

Greenville, Ala., Jan. 2. -- (AP) -- Authorities today studied the cause of an accident which brought death to seven members of the WILLIAM SEXTON family when their automobile plunged into Little Pigeon creek near here while they were enroute to have New Year's day dinner with relatives.
Only one of the occupants of the automobile escaped when it swerved off a narrow, un-railed bridge nine miles east of here yesterday and plummeted 20 feet, end over end, into 23 feet of water.
He was KENDRICK THOMAS, 27, employe of a Greenville lumber firm, who was driving the family to Honoraville for what was to have been a happy reunion of three generations of the SEXTON family.
The dead:
WILLIAM SEXTON, 55.
MRS. WILLIAM SEXTON, 54.
MRS. KENDRICK THOMAS, 25, their daughter.
EMMETT RAY SEXTON, 15, a son.
MISS GUSSIE SEXTON, 23, a daughter.
SARAH DAVISON, 13, a grand-daughter.
BRUCE CREWS, 4, a grandson.
THOMAS was quoted by State Highway Patrol Sergt. TOM CARLISLE as saying he applied the brakes as he approached the narrow plank bridge, which spans the deep creek at the foot of an incline.
"Something went wrong with the left wheel," CARLISLE said the grief-stricken man told him. "Before I could straighten out we were going off the bridge."

The Daily Times News Burlington North Carolina 1939-01-02
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!