Newspaper Page Text
Page 4
Yellow River Dragster Hits Spectators
(From Front Page)
casts. He said it was one of
the worst things he had ever
seen.
Although Houston Platt seem
ed to be uninjured in the crash
of his “Funny Car”, he was
treated at DeKalb General Hos
pital for shock, according to
the Hospital Administrator Wil
liam Thrasher. Eight others were
admitted to DeKalb General soon
after the race car left the track
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WAITING FOR NEWS of dead and injured at Newton County Hos
pital were many relatives and friends of the victims Sunday after
noon. The Hospital’s disaster plan was put into operation in order
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AN OFFICER talks to several witnesses at the death scene at Yellow River Drag Strip after the acci
dent took 11 lives Sunday. The finish line flags are shown at right.
THIS CHAIN-LINK FENCE was broken down by spectators on the opposite side of the track following
the dragster’s crash Sunday afternoon at the Yellow River Drag Strip near Covington. Thousands of
people were on hand for the “Funny Car” drags of the program. Eleven persons lost their lives when
the car crashed into the crowd traveling at a speed of about 180 miles per hour.
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.OFFICERS HAD a difficult time clearing the Yellow River Drag Strip area Sunday after 11 fans were
^killed by a racer roaring out of control. The bank area shown here was the scene of many of the deaths
B| ^* car left the track at about 160-180 MPH. ' ' ~ '
(Best Coverage: News, Pictures, and Features)
and went hurdling into the crowd.
The body of Weldon Wlnshlow
Price, Jr., remained unidentified
at Caldwell and Cowan Funeral
Home until about 3 a.m. Mondav
His father traveled to
DeKalb General and looked at the
injured there before coming by
Covington. At Caldwell and Co
wan the parents identified their
son. The Prices live at Union
Point, Ga.
CD Director Floyd: “All con
cerned did an outstanding job.
We will now work to coordinate
our efforts to do a better job
in such an emergency.”
The Covington NEWS was in
formed Wednesday morning that
six patients remain in DeKalb
General Hospital in Decatur and
two in Piedmont Hospital in At
lanta.
Jesse White, 8 years of age,
Stone Mountain, and Daniel Brad
ford, 17, of Lawrenceville, are
in critical condition at DeKalb
General., Kenneth Jerry Stowe,
and Sidney Castleberry, Sr., 45,
of Kennesaw, are “critical and
to handle the emergency. Approximately 25 persons were taken to
the hospital from the Yellow River Drag Strip Sunday after the
accident at the track which claimed 11 lives.
in intensive care” at Piedmont
Hospital.
Four others in DeKalb General
were reported to be in‘Fair’con
dition Wednesday.
Platt’s car was a 1969 Camaro.
The weirdly painted pink and
candy-orange dragster was
brand-new, making its first run
of the season at the Atlanta area’s
first big meet of 1969. The time
was approximately 2:30 p.m., and
Platt’s duel with Frank Oglesby
of Hammond, La., driving the
(Editor’s Note: Ron Ander
son, a young Texas man, who
recently joined the sports staff
of The Atlanta Journal, and his
date, were eyewitnesses to the
Yellow River Drag tragedy
Sunday. They came to see their
first drag race. Herewith is his
story as carried in The Jour
nal Monday.)
♦ * *
By RON ANDERSON
“Here it comes,” I said to
my girl beside me, “get outta
here.” I grabbed her arm and
started to run. She was hit by
another man, and we were se
parated. I only -made it about
10 feet from the fence and turn
ed just in time to see dirt fly
all over her. Then the fence
collapsed.
I glanced up and saw only
half a car as it hurtled up onto
the embankment, bouncing along
the tops of cars parked there and
dragging fence behind it like a
spinning top with the string still
attached.
The scene was Yellow River
Dragstrip about three miles west
of Covington in Newton County.
Sudden and unbelievable death in
the sunlight.
Moments before we had been
standing about 30 yards from the
finish line at the quarter-mile
strip where racers were only
running 1,000 feet due to their
high speeds.
I explained nonchalantly to my
girl how these “funny cars” could
hit 160 miles an hour in 1,000
feet and do it in some seven
seconds.
“If one of those things goes
out of control,” I said, half-face
tiously, “it’s every man for him
self.”
Some daring souls were run
ning across the strip directly in
front of us. Two boys sat just
to our right, amidst a pile of beer
and soft drink cans on the em
bankment. Fortunately, they de
cided to move before the cars
started running again. If they had
stayed there the runaway drag
ster, driven by Houston Platt of
Atlanta, would have plowed
directly over them.
Cars were lined up beside the
fence, and people standing on the
fenders to get a better view.
Pickup trucks were backed up
to the fence, some were standing
in the back, others were sitting
on the tailgates.
I noticed the guardrails extend
ed down the track to a point about
70 yards short of the finish line.
At that point the chain link fence
veered away from the track for
abou 20 feet and then on down the
strip and stood atop an embank
ment about three feet above the
roadway.
Then it happened.
I had leaned over the fence to
get a better view as Platt, in his
red Camaro, and Frank Oglesby,
driving a red and white Cougar,
Eliminator 2, screened down the
pavement, their tires smoking
and engines straining for every
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famed (in racing circles) “Eli
minator H” Cougar belonging to
Dyno Don Nicholson, was the first
big match of the day.
The distances to be run Sunday
were but 1,000 feet, not a quarter
mile, a testimony to the power
of the machines and the speeds
they attain.
Hie accident, unequalled in the
annals of U. S. racing, was sim
ilar yet much more macabre
in number to one four years past
(Feb. 25, 1965) at Southeastern
Dragway near Dallas, Ga. There,
Richard Petty’s Barracuda,
traveling at only 45-50 m.p.h.,
went into the crowd, killed a
6-year-old boy and injured sev
eral others.
Yellow River, 11 years old and
operated by S. A. “Shug” Camp
bell, Covington, is not sanctioned.
Platt went off-course exactly
where the guardrail ends on the
right lane at Yellow River.
The first casualty, apparent
ly was a man who somehow
had gotten across the chain link
fence and was standing alongside
the track.
Platt released his parachute
Reporter Gives
Eyewitness Story
ounce of horsepower out of the
70-80 per cent nitroglycerine fuel
mixture.
The first time I saw Platt I
knew there was trouble. He was
sideways in the middle of the
track and then flopping back and
forth like a fish out of water.
It was over in about the time
it takes to draw a few short
breaths. Now there were people
lying around who wouldn’t draw
another.
One man ran from between
the cars carrying a little girl
who earlier had been sitting atop
his shoulders. He was crying,
“My God, please, somebody help
me.” w
We saw three who were dead,
killed instantly, and then I took
my girl behind the grandstand
and returned to see if I could
help. It was no use.
People were now storming
from the other side of the track
and others who had jumped back
from the fence and were all
right now rushed up to see if
friends or relatives had been
hurt.
Bodies were strewn along the
embankment for 30 yards. People
were now screaming for help as
they discovered their loved ones
were badly hurt.
One small boy was no longer
breathing. They covered him with
a coat and laid him gently out of
the way. Then someone screamed
that he was still alive. A truck
arrived just then to take away
the injured and a young man stood
on top of a car scraming, “That
little boy’s still alive. For God’s
sake, take him first.”
“An ambulance, please, an am
bulance, please,” begged one
mother whose child was already
dead.
Between every car for about 30
yards someone lay injured. A
body lay next to the racer out of
which Platt had crawled seconds
earlier, unhurt but in shock. A
witness said a man, on the in
side of the fence when the racer
went wild, had been caught by
the drag chute used to slow the
racer and snatched along behind
the disintegrating machine. He
never had a chance.
A plastic ice bucket, cut half
in two and covered with blood,
lay in the ditch, a stark re
minder of the suddenness of
death. A bloodly coat lay next to
it, ripped like it had been run
over by a power mower, an in
stant commentary on the frailty
of life.
Shortly, ambulances began ar
riving as if in convoy. The dead
were wrapped in sheets and the
injured were loaded onto stretch
ers. Spectators began the slow
walk back to their cars and an
even longer wait in them as the
congested parking began to break
up.
As I opened the car door for
my girl, she said, “I’ve seen my
first and last drag race.” I
didn’t say it then, but I didn’t
have to. Some other people also
had just seen their last.
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to brake his racer. The man was
swept up in the ‘chute’, dragged
pitifully along the hideous route
entangled in the silk cloth, and
was decapitated.
COMMITTEE
(From Front Page)
Jimmy Cheek, Yellow River
track official, said that many of
the spectators had climbed over
the chain-link fence and were
standing near the track when the
“funny car” went out of control.
Cheek had ridden down the track
on a mini-bike before the fun of
the “funny cars” and warned
spectators to move back behind
the fence. Many did move back,
but some of them jeered hifn
and moved back to their positions
along track-side as soon as he
moved away from them.
“We always try to stop spec
tators from crossing the fence,
but it’s hard to control a crowd
that big,” Cheek said. Sunday
afternoon’s crowd at the Yellow
River Strip was estimated at be
tween four and five thousand.
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THIS PHOTO was taken at 3 p. m«, about an hour after the tragic accident, as cars still lined the exit
roads at Yellow River. Crowds milled about the track until officers cleared the area.
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Rep. J. E. Bohannon and Rep. Jack Cole, members of the House Motor Vehicles Committee, talk with
Deputy Gerald Malcolm and Sheriff Henry Odum, Jr. of Newton County while inspecting the site of the
Yellow River Drag Strip disaster.
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J R Smith secretary of the House Motor Vehicles committee; John Anderson, memoers; local Rep.
Donald Raila rd; and Chairman Bill Williams are shown during a visit to the Atlanta Speed Shop Drag
Strip Monday afternoon along with other committee members, representatives of the press, radio,
television, and local officials.
Racing Legislation Is
Introduced In House
In the aftermath of Sunday’s
tragedy at the Yellow River Drag
Strip legislation has been intro
duced in the Georgia House of
Representatives setting up strict
racing regulations in the state.
Other companion bills are also
being drawn.
A bill authored by Representa
tives Preston Lewis of Waynes
boro, Bill Williams of Gaines
ville, and Donald Ballard of Cov
ington was read for the first
time on the floor of the House on
Tuesday.
“We are not after drag racing
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THIS MAN (above) was looking into the bed of the pickup truck
at the blood-splattered vehicle which was parked along the chain
link fence at Yellow River. The owners of the two vehicles failed
to show up Sunday evening to claim their car and truck.
Thursday, Maren o, i»o»
alone,” Rep. Ballard said Wed
nesday morning, “but rather,
setting up regulations in Geor
gia to govern auto racing in gen
eral. Heretofore, racing, espec
ially drag racing, in Georgia has
been viewed much the same as
sandlot football with few stand
ards to follow.”
Tbe racing bill was drawn after
members of the House Motor Ve
hicles Committee made an in
spection tour of the Yellow River
Drag Strip on Monday and also
the Atlanta .Speed Shop Strip which
is also located in Newton County.