By Brad Dison
On September 30, 1955, 23-year-old Donald Gene “Don” Turnupseed was returning to his home in Tulare, California, from California Polytechnic College in San Luis Obispo, California. Don was a freshman at the college; in April of 1955, he had completed a four-year stint in the Navy and had enrolled at the college soon thereafter. Don was driving east on Highway 466 (now Highway 46) in his five-year-old Ford Tudor on a trip that normally took about two and a half hours. It was Friday evening, and Don was looking forward to spending a stress-free weekend with Barbara, his wife of five years. Don could not imagine how stressful his life would soon become.
At about 5:30, just before sunset on that Friday evening, Don had been driving almost an hour when he approached the intersection at Highway 41. Don had to turn left to continue his trip to Tulare. He was familiar with this drive and knew he only had to decrease his speed slightly because turning onto Highway 41 was more like veering than an actual turn. Don could see about three miles in the distance on the long straight stretch, and the road seemed to disappear into the low mountains in the background. Don saw no approaching vehicles, turned his steering wheel slightly to the left, and began to veer onto Highway 41. Don was unable to see the low, sleek, silver-gray convertible sports car driving towards him in the opposite lane until it was too late. The two cars struck almost head-on.
Don, in the bigger, heavier car received only minor bruises and a cut on his nose. The two people in the sports car were not so lucky. The driver of the sports car was unconscious and trapped in the crushed car. His passenger received numerous injuries when he was thrown from the sports car. People who stopped to help found him lying unconscious on the side of the road. It took an ambulance about half an hour to reach the site of the crash. Ambulance driver Paul Moreno noted that both the driver and passenger of the sports car were alive when taken from the site of the accident, but the driver died during the 24-mile drive back to War Memorial Hospital in Paso Robles. His passenger eventually recovered. Don told the California Highway Patrolman on the scene, “I looked but didn’t see him coming.” A driver who was just behind Don at the time of the crash said he also failed to see the approaching car. Don was eventually released by the highway patrolman and told that he could “probably catch a ride home.” Don flagged down a passing car and arrived at the hospital in Tulare six and a half hours after the accident. It was there that he learned that the driver of the other car had not survived.
Don was distraught and avoided speaking about the tragic accident. He gave just a single interview, which was on the day after the accident, but reminders of the tragedy were everywhere. Photos of the driver who died in the accident appeared on coffee mugs, plates, t-shirts, book and magazine covers, statuettes, and a plethora of other items. He became a pop culture icon. On July 13, 1995, almost 40 years after the accident, Don died from lung cancer. He was finally at peace. The intersection where the accident occurred is now a memorial junction named after the driver of the sports car who died in the accident. That intersection is called the James Dean Memorial Junction.
Sources:
Tulare Advance-Register, October 1, 1955, p.1.
“Donald Gene Turnupseed,” Findagrave.com, accessed October 12, 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10990655/donald-gene-turnupseed.
