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Submitted: 5/10/21 • Approved: 5/12/21 • Last Updated: 5/15/21 • R417688-G0-S3
Texas
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS Company A 37 Armor
November 17, 1940-September 1, 1963
Photo/information, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley
*Obituary
Two 22 year-old men were killed and one 21 year-old was critically injured at 1:09 a.m. Sunday on farm to market road 280 when the car they were riding in "couldn't make the curve" and turned over, rolling 396 ft., according to investigating Highway Patrolman, Vernon Cawthon.
"All three men were from Borger. The injured man, Don Henry Burns, was thrown out and pinned under the car on the last roll," Cawthon said. "The dead men, Jimmy S. Vaughn and Arthur Floyd Belt, Jr., were also thrown out and pronounced dead on arrival at a borger [sic] hospital."
According to Cawthon, Burns was still alive this morning, but in "very critical condition."
The accident happened nine miles northeast of Borger when a 1958 car, driver unknown tried to pass Burns' car. Burns speeded up and wouldn't let the car pass, according to Cawthon.
"I turned around and was going to sop him for that," Cawthon said. The driver of the car saw me coming and slowed down, but the other shot ahead" Cawthon said. "He turned north on a farm to market road. Five miles after he turned, he tried to make a curve going 100 miles an hour."
Cawthon said he "didn't know how many times the car rolled over, but it rolled for 396 feet. The car was completely demolished, and came all to pieces."
"When the car stopped, it caught fire and burned for a few minutes," Cawthon said. The fire was put out before the fire truck arrived. The men were taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
"The driver of the 1958 car didn't commit any violation, and I haven't found out yet who he was," Cawthon said.
(Published in Pampa Daily News (Pampa, Texas) - Mon, Sep 2, 1963 - Page 1)
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Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982
Name: Arthur Floyd Belt
Birth Date: 17 Nov 1940
Birth Place: Sapulpa, Oklahoma
Gender: Male
Race: White
Residence: Borger, Hutchinson, Texas
Father: Arthur F Belt Senior
Mother: Kathryn E Forrest
Age at Death: 22
Death Date: 1 Sep 1963
Death Place: Borger, Hutchinson, Texas, USA
Contributed on 5/10/21
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Record #: 417688