Just a little south of the former Emerald Valley Golf Course (the topic of yesterday's post) is the portion of Leavitt Road once known as 'Massacre Mile' – where the big sweeping curve is located.
Massacre Mile has been featured on this blog before. This 1967 article from the Journal seems to be the one of the earliest references to that part of State Route 58 as that nickname; and this 1976 article provided an update of the carnage in the ensuing nine years.
Well, here's yet another article about Massacre Mile – this one dating from right in the middle between the years of the previous articles. It ran in the Journal on May 31, 1972.
I'm not sure if anyone refers to that part of Leavitt Road as Massacre Mile any more, especially since the speed limit has been reduced. In the past many years, I've also noticed at least one house on the curve that was removed.
But there's a new problem area nearby – namely, the entrance to Lighthouse Village. Last year it seems like every time I went through that area where Tower Boulevard runs into the shopping area, there was a bad accident there.
Vehicles losing control was much more common in those days. Hydroplaning was the norm when it rained. Today's cars have so much more advanced engineering and handling that I doubt anyone driving today even notices that curve in the road.
ReplyDeleteHow about that labor dispute at Crucible? Those were the days when they made good money at Crucible.
Back then they still had bias ply tires.And they were pretty much bald when brand new.Just having a weird slither looking design of a tread.Bias ply tires never found a rut that they didn't like either.
ReplyDeleteI remember when they added the flashing lights and sign that displayed your speed.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall there were one or two small rises on one side of the curve going south. You could easily, if going to fast lose control
ReplyDeleteEven growing up in the 80s I had no idea that area was ever known as massacre mile or especially dangerous. As others have said, things sure were different back then. Bias ply tires, no anti-lock brakes or traction control, lots of cars without power steering or extremely vague over-boosted power steering, brake lights that were much harder to see, etc. At the time this article was written there were still plenty of cars on the road that didn't even have seat belts, and plenty of people who didn't bother to use them even if their car did. When there was an accident people were more likely to be seriously injured or killed.
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