High-Speed Plunge Over 350-Foot Hill Kills Leslie Man

(Editor’s Note: Reprinted from the April 26, 1973 The Manchester Enterprise.)

A 350-foot airborne plunge over a mountain into the highway below resulted in instant death to a former Leslie County man and critically injured his 19-year-old brother.

Killed was R.B. Osborne, 21, son of Shelby Osborne of Sizerock in Leslie County.  His brother Billy Joe was rushed to the U.K. Medical Center in Lexington where his condition was still reported critical Wednesday.

Both men were currently living in Dayton, Ohio, and were visiting here over the weekend.

The accident occurred when R.B. apparently drove the late model car at a high rate of speed down the wrong way on the Manchester Drag Strip and continued off the end of the track and over a former strip mine embankment plunging approximately 350 feet into the highway below.

Investigating officers said there was no apparent sign of brakes had been applied before the care went over the embankment and witnesses at the scene said they saw the brake lights come on after the car was approximately 50 feet in the air.

The marks at the top of the hill indicated the car was still gaining speed as it went over the drop off, one officer said.

After the auto crashed into the highway below, it bounced an additional 25 feet into a field below the road.  The car was totally damaged by the impact so strong it knocked parts out of the engine block.

Witnesses said the accident occurred about 6:45 p.m. Sunday after the Drag Strip closed.  Over 15 people remained at the strip and were present when the car ran over the drop off.

Investigating officers said R.B. was thrown clear during the impact and was lying at the rear of the car when they arrived.  Billy Joe was said to still be in the car and was rushed to Manchester where he received emergency treatment and was immediately transferred to Lexington.

Officers have estimated the auto was traveling between 90 and 100 miles an hour when it sailed into the air at the end of the dragstrip, and witnesses told officers the Osborne vehicle had first raced down the strip, turned and came back even faster than it had gone down.  No other car was said to be on the track at the time.

Force of impact at the foot of the hill was so intense, officers said, it knocked parts of the motor from the car and demolished the body.

Manchester Dragway is located five miles west of Manchester on the Little Goose Road near the home of John Garrison.  It occupies an abandoned strip mine sight at the top of the hill and has an official blacktopped dragway surface.

Autos race from one end of the strip toward a wooded embankment at the other.  The starting end is near the edge of ‘the dropoff’ to the Little Goose Road.

Britton Funeral Home transferred the body from the accident scene and released it to Walker Funeral Home of Hyden.