DUPREE, James Robert

Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Friday, January 2, 1948, p. 1 Youth Is First Traffic Victim Victim of a freak accident involving a mule, his motorcycle and an automobile, 19-year-old James Dupree, 1212 South Seventh street, became Arizona's first traffic fatality of 1948, according to records of the highway patrol. Two blocks south of Seventh street on Broadway, Dupree's motorcycle hit a mule. He was thrown in front of a northbound automobile which ran over him. The driver failed to stop. The driver failed to remain at the accident scene. But last night in response to a telephone call, Capt. Everett Bowman of the highway patrol, went to the home of Ann Smith, 29 years old, on baseline road about a mile west of Central avenue, who told him she was the driver of the car. She said she stopped at the time of the accident; that there was another man there, too, so she drove away to telephone the highway patrol and make a report. After that, she said, she became nervous and unstrung and went home. The accident occurred at 11:20 p.m. Wednesday. Dupree died of a skull fracture in St. Monica's Hospital at 12:45 a.m. yesterday. He was the only Arizona traffic victim reported for 1948 at a late hour last night. His death counts against the 1947 record.