There was always danger in riding at night, especially over the mountains, where sometimes a misstep would cost a life. The following item from a letter written in 1837 tells of such an incident: "One of the Reliance line of stages, from Frederick to the West, passed through here on its way to Cumberland. About ten o'clock the ill-fated coach reached a small spur of the mountain, running to the Potomac, and between this place and Hancock, termed Millstone Point, where the driver mistaking the track, reined his horses too near the edge of the precipice, and in the twinkling of an eye, coach, horses, driver, and passengers were precipitated upward of thirty-five feet onto a bed of rock below--the coach was dashed to pieces, and two of the horses killed--literally smashed. "A respectable elderly lady of the name of Clarke, of Louisville, Kentucky, and a negro child were crushed to death--and a man so dreadfully mangled that his life is flickering on his lips only. His face was beaten to a mummy. The other passengers and the driver were woefully bruised, but it is supposed they are out of danger. There were seven in number. "I cannot gather that any blame was attached to the driver. It is said that he was perfectly sober; but he and his horses were new to this road, and the night was foggy and very dark." An act of the legislature of Ohio required that every stagecoach used for the conveyance of passengers in the night should have two good lamps affixed in the usual manner, and subjected the owner to a fine of from ten to thirty dollars for every forty-eight hours the coach was not so provided. Drivers of coaches who should drive in the night when the track could not be distinctly seen without having the lamps lighted were subject to a forfeiture of from five to ten dollars for each offense. The same act provided that drivers guilty of intoxication, so as to endanger the safety of passengers, on written notice of a passenger on oath, to the owner or agent, should be forthwith discharged, and subjected the owner continuing to employ that driver more than three days after such notice to a forfeiture of fifty dollars a day. Stage proprietors were required to keep a printed copy of the act posted up in their offices, under a penalty of five dollars. Another act of the Ohio legislature subjected drivers who should leave their horses without being fastened, to a fine of not over twenty dollars.