On July 10, 1951, a Holyoke, Massachusetts, judge fined Gus W. Vasilocosta of Suffield, Connecticut, five dollars for failing to slow down at an intersection. It was a minor traffic violation, one of thousands routinely handled in local courts. Two years later, on Monday, December 14, 1953, Vasilocosta was driving his convertible coupe westward along Thompsonville Road in Suffield. At the same time, Paul O. McGinnis of New Salem, Massachusetts, with his passenger Anthony M. Symanski of Hatfield, was traveling south on East Street in a 2½-ton truck carrying four work horses. East Street and Thompsonville Road intersected just ahead of them. The two vehicles approached the crossing. Locals had a name for it: “Death’s Corner.” At 11:31 a.m., they collided.   Gus Vasilocosta’s wrecked coupe following the collision at “Death’s Corner"   The impact forced Vasilocosta’s coupe into a cement retaining wall as the truck continued forward before overturning. It also tossed the horses fro...