Chevrolet Takes a Tumble

Everyone once in a while I read an article that has such imagery it captures my imagination. One of these is an artilce from June 29, 1910 that describes Louis Chevrolet's accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as he practiced for the upcoming July 4 weekend races. Coming out of the fourth turn his Buick burst a tire and then spun from the inside of the track to outer edge where it plowed into soft dirt and rolled over (the outer retaining wall only lined the corners - not the straights - at that time). When the Buick's nose dipped into the dirt, the machine flipped end over end. Thinking quickly, Chevrolet ducked into the "basement." No roll bars in those days. But Chevrolet, who helped design the machine had reinforced the hood of the car with steel to resisting crushing blows. Crude safety measures by any standard, but it did spare him serious injury on that day. There is an image of the car after the accident in another collection as well.