Jethro was the only one to drive the truck because Max Baer, Jr, was the only one strong enough to steer or stop it. The poor guy hated it. There was no power steering or power brakes. I've heard actors complain about having to drive antique cars. They might look cute, but they were unreliable, hard to drive and were death traps even though they were slow.
There was a documentary on the history of automotive safety. In the 1960's, antique cars were plentiful enough that did crash tests with them. They showed one with an old Dodge. You know those silent comedies where someone wrecks and the car completely falls apart leaving the driver standing in the street surrounded by wreckage holding the steering wheel? That's about how it looked, except the crash test dummy bounced off the steering column and tumbled out of the car. A 20 mile per hour crash was a death sentence.
And I'll mention one other thing. When watching documentaries like that, so many people feel the need to sit with their eyes glued to the TV. When they're about to show something horrible, consider averting your eyes. One big advantage of living in an advanced country in the 21st century is that you don't have to see horrible injuries and death, but then they just show it to you on TV anyway.
There was a time when I felt an obligation to watch out of sympathy for the people, but I wasn't doing them any good.
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