DRAUGHON, JULIAN F.

Weekend accidents claimed at least 10 lives in Alabama, two of them In the Anniston area. There were nine traffic deaths and one fatality in a mine accident.

Accident victims over the state included a Highway Patrolman, [Julian] Fred Draughon, 29, of Dothan.

The highway patrolman, son of Asst. Dothan Police Chief Julian Draughon, and Highway Patrolman E. H. Jones, were escorting a sick woman to a hospital Saturday night [October 3, 1953] when Draughon’s motorcycle collided with a pickup truck at a Dothan intersection.

Draughon was catapulted over the pickup truck and landed in the street. His motorcycle skidded into the one driven by Jones, injuring the other officer.

The truck driver, Eddie Hallford of Dothan Rt. 1, received fractured ribs. He was quoted as saying he did not hear the sirens which the patrolmen were using to speed the woman to the hospital.

Rueben Hughes of Geneva had stopped the two motorcycle officers and asked for an escort into Dothan. His sister, Flora Bradley of Black, Ala., had suffered a respiratory attack and he was rushing her to a hospital.

Draughon is the third highway patrolman in 18 months to be killed in traffic accidents while on duty. H. P. Bryant was fatally injured near Scottsboro last December, and A. O. Hudson killed near Jasper the previous spring.