Video: 'Eddie Cochran - Cherished Memories (2001 British documentary)'

(Saturday, April 16, 1960, 11:50 p.m. GMT) — American rock musician Eddie Cochran, 21, who wrote and recorded the classic “Summertime Blues,” was fatally injured tonight when the taxi he was riding in blew a tire and crashed into a lamp post on the A4 in Chippenham, England.

At the moment of impact Cochran, who was seated in the center of the back seat, threw himself over his fiancée, songwriter Sharon Sheeley, to shield her and he was thrown out of the car when a rear passenger door opened in the collision’s force.

Cochran was taken to St Martin’s Hospital in Bath. He had suffered severe head injuries, and died at 4:10 p.m. the following day, Easter Sunday, 1960.

Sheeley, along with tour manager Pat Thompkins and singer Gene Vincent, all survived the crash. Vincent, however, sustained lasting injuries to an already permanently damaged leg that would shorten his career and affect him for the rest of his life.

The taxi driver, Mr. G. Martin, was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50 (and in default of payment six months imprisonment), and disqualified from driving for 15 years.