The diagram above depicts the accident scene ...

On Sunday, 9 December 1945, planned a visit to some ruins and a hunting trip before returning to his office the next day. With him in the vehicle were Major General Gay (his Chief of Staff) and PFC Horace Woodring, his driver. They had just passed a jeep carrying two Military Police Lieutenants (Lt Babalas and Lt Metzker, when Patton's vehicle struck a large Army truck driven by T/5 Robert Thompson.

The two MP lieutenants were on the scene immediately and Lt Babalas assumed control of the accident investigation. He could see that Patton was injured. Patton had been sitting on the edge of the back seat and, on impact, was thrown forcibly forward. He suffered bloody but superficial lacerations to the scalp when his head hit the clock mounted on the rear of the front seat. Babalas was concerned about the position of Patton's head and he had him sent directly to the US Army Hospital in Heidelberg where it was determined Patton had suffered a broken neck.

Lt Babalas initially charged both drivers with negligence, stating that Woodring was speeding and that the truck driver (Thompson) turned in front of the on-coming vehicle. When he visited Patton in the hospital, Patton suggested that neither driver be charged, stating that 'an accident is an accident'.

Patton died on 21 December of pulmonary embolism and he had been paralyzed from the neck down since the dat of the accident. He is buried in the military cemetary at Hamm, Luxemburg