Massachusetts drivers haven't changed much over the years. I know, as I drive on Massachusetts roads most every day. What I see these days is quite similar to what Leslie Jones saw, and photographed, many years ago.
Jones was staff photographer at the Boston-Herald Traveler newspaper from 1917 to 1956. He captured everything that happened in and around Boston for five decades and when he died in 1967, his family donated a vast collection of 34,000 prints to the Boston Public Library. The MailOnline web site has published a few samples of automobile accidents from that collection.
Keep in mind that automobiles of that period typically traveled as fast as 50 miles per hour and the drivers did not need to take a road test to prove competency. Today's drivers do need to pass a road test, although the results haven't changed all that much, as evidenced by the crashes on Massachusetts highways every day.
You can see the photographs at http://goo.gl/vLdQN.
Look closely at the photo above. (You can click on it to see a larger image.) Is that a buffalo robe lying on the ground next to the seat? When was the last time you saw a buffalo robe?
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