Fascinating photos from the 1920s and 30s show the dramatic and tragic side effect of the golden age of American motoring.
The pictures were taken in and around Boston , Massachusetts by Leslie Jones, who was staff photographer at the Boston-Herald Traveler newspaper from 1917 to 1956.
Mr Jones captured everything that happened in the city for five decades and when he died in 1967, his family donated a vast collection of 34,000 prints to the Boston Public Library.
They included these fascinating photos of vintage car wrecks from the great motoring boom.
Motor cars became affordable to the masses for the first time in the 1920s. By the end of the decade a Model T Ford cost $298, just a fraction of the $1,200 it cost in 1909.
The introduction of hire purchase also made it much easier for members of the public to buy cars, and by 1929, 20 per cent of Americans were on the road.
Ford, Chrysler and General Motors were all competing for the boom in business and by the time the depression hit in 1929, Ford was producing more than one car every minute.
Technology meant these early cars were capable of achieving speeds of up to 50 miles per hour – but safety measures were nowhere near as advanced as they are today.
Add in the fact drivers didn’t need to pass a test before they got behind the wheel, and it’s easy to see why accidents were frequent and often spectacular.
1st photo = Officers examine a car that has wrapped itself around a tree, spilling its interiors onto the street in Boston in 1933
2nd photo = Passersby try to figure out how this car ended up nose-down in a trench in Boston ‘s West End . A glance at the rough, dirt-covered road provides a clue.
3rd photo = The scene of an accident in 1935. Information with the photo reveals a car stolen by joyriding children crashed into a lawyer’s car, killing him.
4th photo = Giving a rare glimpse of the day’s fashion, a group of men look over a crumpled car that sits by the side of a residential Boston street.
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