Ten in a Sedan

On the evening before Raymond Matlock's eighth birthday, his family headed for Washington, N.J., 15 miles south of the Matlock farm, to buy presents for his party. Packed into the new Matlock sedan were Raymond and nine relatives: father at the wheel, mother, brother, three sisters, grandmother, two aunts.

After the Matlocks started south, a northbound trailer truck driven by John Scarantino passed through Washington. Three miles outside Washington, Scarantino (whose New Jersey driving rights were revoked last year when he failed to appear in court on a charge of passing on a curve) swerved into the left-hand lane to avoid a truck parked on the shoulder ahead of him. He saw the oncoming Matlock car too late. All of the Matlocks except Raymond were killed outright; Raymond died next morning, on his birthday.

The National Safety Council announced that never before in the annals of U.S. traffic disasters had so many persons been killed in a single automobile.

In Palmetto, Fla. last week, seven members of one family--Wilbur C. Bearden and his wife, three children, mother and brother-in-law--were killed when their automobile rammed into a locomotive at a crossing.

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