Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1973: A state senator representing eastern New Mexico was urging Congress to focus on safer roads beyond major highways.
"It is senseless to build a ribbon of super highways and then allow to exist, just 10 miles away, narrow and deteriorated roads with ridiculously narrow bridges," Odis Echols wrote in telegrams to New Mexico's congressional delegation.
Echols, a Democrat, urged federal lawmakers to "trim fat from other legislation to ensure that we obtain the necessary funds to eliminate the specter of the horrifying tragedy that claimed 19 lives on a New Mexico bridge."
Echols was referencing a December 1972 bus-truck crash near Fort Sumner that killed Texas teenagers on a church trip.
He said he wrote the telegrams because he feared Congress might "soft pedal" the need for highway safety funds in smaller communities.
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