From the Archives: Soft drink casualties were heavy

On June 6, 1943, Los Angeles Times photographer George Watson's assignment was to photograph the Poston internment camp just across the Colorado River in Arizona. While enroute, Watson came across this overturned truck, took a couple of photos and then went on his way.

This photo appeared in the next morning's Los Angeles Times. The accompanying article reported:

INDIO, June 6 — It was the case of ‘bottoms up’ not only for the drinks but for the truck when a load of soft drinks on their way to a desert army camp became involved in a freak accident on the highway between here and Desert Center.

Loaded to the hilt with bottled soft drinks, the truck developed a motor lock on a steep grade, stalled and slipped off an embankment to stand upturned in the desert sun while soft drinks fizzled and died.

E.L. Bohanon, the driver, was uninjured. Casualties among the soft drinks were high, he said.

The negatives for these two photos were found in the Los Angeles Times archive filed with Watson's Poston negatives.

This post was originally published on May 9, 2012.