There are areas of New York City that go virtually unseen by both residents and visitors. Places like The Hole and Dead Horse Bay are anomalies and perfect for the urban explorer looking for the atypical. The city’s enormous population requires a staggering infrastructure of supporting services – food distribution, wholesale markets, and small manufacturers. These businesses can neither afford prime real estate nor do they need to be in those neighborhoods. So, areas like Hunt’s Point are also found off the beaten path, rarely seen except to those who have specific business there. Or to writers looking to risk arrest for a story about a floating prison.

The Bronx is home to many auto service and supply businesses. On my recent excursion to the Vernon C. Bain jail barge, I witnessed the sight in today’s photo. Here, in the South Bronx on Drake Street, surrounded by metal shops and auto wreckers, I spotted this completely wrecked automobile. I was reminded of the song The Wreck on the Highway, recorded by Roy Acuff in 1942*. Although quite morose, the song became a national country hit. Here are the lyrics:

Who did you say it was brother?
Who was it fell by the way?
When whiskey and blood run together
Did you hear anyone pray?

CHORUS
I didn’t hear nobody pray, dear brother
I didn’t hear nobody pray
I heard the crash on the highway
But, I didn’t hear nobody pray.

When I heard the crash on the highway
I knew what it was from the start
I went to the scene of destruction
And a picture was stamped on my heart.

There was whiskey and blood all together
Mixed with glass where they lay
Death played her hand in destruction
But I didn’t hear nobody pray.

I wish I could change this sad story
That I am now telling you
But there is no way I can change it
For somebody’s life is now through.

Their soul has been called by the Master
They died in a crash on the way
And I heard the groans of the dying
But, I didn’t hear nobody pray.

I hope the occupants of this vehicle did not meet a fate as dire as that described by Roy Acuff. Things have changed since Roy’s time in the 1930s-40s – some worse, some better, like safety belts and airbags. Examining the photos, it does appear that airbags were deployed in this Wreck on the Highway…

*The song was actually the subject of a legal dispute. “I Didn’t Hear Anybody Pray”, about a fatal car accident, was written by Dorsey Dixon and recorded by the Dixon brothers in 1938. It was later recorded as “The Wreck on the Highway” by country musician Roy Acuff in 1942. Acuff did not remember where he knew the song from but claimed it as his own. “Wreck on the Highway” became a national country music hit, but Dixon received no royalties. At his family’s insistence, in the mid-1940s, Dixon filed a lawsuit against Acuff, and in 1946 an out-of-court settlement was reached. Dixon was granted ownership of “Wreck on the Highway”, a third of the existing $5,000 royalties, and an “undisclosed percentage” of future royalties. Dixon later adopted Acuff’s title, and “Wreck on the Highway” became his “best-known and arguably his greatest composition.”