Groom, TX Trailer Truck And Automobile Collision, Jan 1962

7 PERSONS PERISH IN TEXAS CRASH.

Groom, Tex. (AP) -- Seven persons died today when a station wagon with an Arkansas license rammed under a parked trailer truck on the western edge of this Texas Panhandle town.
The dead included four men, a woman, a girl, about 11, and a boy, 6 or 7.
One of the dead was identified from a driver's license as CLAYTON ALDRIDGE, 21, Route 1, Kennett, Mo.
A woman, about 45, was critically injured, and a boy, about 3, was seriously hurt. The woman was taken to a Groom hospital with head injuries.
The station wagon, traveling west on U.S. Highway 66, bore Arkansas License 812-121.
A school report card found in the wreckage bore the name "JUDY BELL."
The dead, six of them still unidentified four hours after the 6:25 a.m. crash, were taken to Poston Funeral Home at the nearby town of Panhandle.
The station wagon was heavily loaded. The weather was clear and cold at the time of the accident.
"It was an awful sight -- the worst wreck I have ever seen," said highway patrolman Jack Morton.
He said the bodies were jammed under the dash panel and the rear seat was slammed up where the front seat should have been by the impact.
The truck belonged to the Yellow Transit Co. The truck driver, Richard Campbell, 36, Oklahoma City, was in a roadside cafe at the time of the crash.
The station wagon rammed far beneath the big vehicle.
Groom is 40 miles east of Amarillo on U.S. Highway 66.

Indiana Evening Gazette Pennsylvania 1962-01-13
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!