This month in history, 51 years to be exact, Taneytown bore witness to a "Dive Bomber Crash" at the fairgrounds.

A story in an October 1948 newspaper offers this exciting preview:

"The amazing 'Dive Bomber' crash, in which a daredevil sends a speeding stock sedan hurdling a two-ton truck and deliberately crashes his machine into a parked car, is listed as one of the featured thrillers scheduled at the Carroll County Fair grounds..."

This death-defying destruction, sponsored by Hesson-Snyder Post 120, was the main event of the American Legion Thrill Day program, in Taneytown.

It featured Buddy Wagner's World's Champion Hell Drivers, for "two thrill-packed performances in front of the grandstand ..."

The 1948 article notes, "For them, almost dying is the only way to live."

What a hoot.

I must confess, I had never heard of the "Hell Drivers" before. In fact, I always thought "hell drivers" was a reference to the friendly folks with whom we "share" Route 140.

If hell owned an airline, Route 140 would be its landing strip.

I know they are friendly drivers because of how they love to meander slowly in the left hand lane, with the left turn signal blinking, keep-up with friends and family on their cell phone, beep the horn and display the Hawaiian love finger as they cross two lanes of traffic to make a right hand turn.

But I digress.

I looked-up "Buddy Wagner's World's Champion Hell Drivers," on the Internet to see if it was really a secret society based in Westminster.

One Web site, "Hell Drivers: America's Original Crash Test Dummies," noted that the "entertainers" performed "Death-defying stunts and other activities you should never, ever try at home. These jobs don't come with health insurance."

The site goes on to state that this "traveling band of stuntmen ... earn a living as real-life crash test dummies. ... These amateur daredevils smash school busses, mobile homes and the occasional flaming garbage truck -- with no more protection than a motorcycle helmet and ordinary seatbelt."

Sugarshoot, that does sound like a description of driving on Route 140. Taneytown in 1948 had nothing on us these days.

"Almost dying is the only way to live," could be a description of driving on Route 140 to get religion -- I mean groceries. Route 140 these days requires at least one wooden stake and several medieval curses.

(Trust me, for every mean thing I just said about driving on Route 140, I held back a half-dozen much nastier remarks out of my shriveled but nevertheless functional sense of decency. )

If you have a death-defying story about driving on Route 140, don't just raise your finger, err, hand. Drop us a note or share it in the comment section on www.explorecarroll.com.

When he is not risking his life on Route 140, Kevin Dayhoff may reached at kevindayhoff@gmail.com, or go to www.westminstermaryland online.net.

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