On February 18, 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr., considered one of
the greatest drivers in NASCAR history, died at the age of 49
in a last-lap crash at the 43rd Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach,
Florida.

Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death made him the fourth NASCAR driver
to die within a nine-month period and eventually prompted
NASCAR officials to implement a series of more stringent
safety regulations, including the use of head-and-neck
restraints.

George Smith Patton Jr
(11 November 1885 – 21 December 1945)

     

          
  General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army,
died from injuries suffered in a car accident not in battle. He
was 60 years old.   
                  
          
          
 

ROSS SIMPSON

Shortly after leaving a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator
Edward “Ted” Kennedy of Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile
off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond. Kennedy escaped
the submerged car, but his passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo
Kopechne, did not. The senator did not report the fatal car
accident for 10 hours.

Celebrated actress Jayne Mansfield was killed instantly on June
29, 1967, when the car in which she is riding struck the rear of a
trailer truck on U.S. Route 90 east of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Mansfield had been on her way to New Orleans from Biloxi,
Mississippi, where she had been performing at a local nightclub;
she had a television appearance scheduled the following day.

Eddie Cochran, the man behind “Summertime Blues” and “C’mon Everybody,” was killed on April 17, 1960 when the taxi carrying
him from a show in Bristol, England, crashed en route to the
airport.