Newspaper offices are filled with interesting sounds and smells.

The smells are easy to pick out. The combination of printing inks and newsprint gives most small daily newspapers the same familiar smell.

And the sounds are a bit similar, too.

From the printing presses whose loud bell alerts anyone nearby that it’s about to start to the occasionally clanking of counting quarters collected from newspaper racks, our offices may sound a bit different than your average business.

Sure we have dozens of keyboards clacking, a coffee pot that drips liquid energy for a weary sportswriter at night and helps wake up a marketing rep early in the morning.

But for as long as I can remember, The Democrat’s building has also been home to a more rare and sometimes terrifying sound — and one that early Friday morning changed the lives of five local teenagers and their families.

The now defunct railroad bed creates a formidable hump for motorists traveling north on the Canal Street, just before you get to our offices.

The incline is steep and the roadway on the other side is at a lower elevation, making it a virtual ramp to launch cars — wittingly for some, unwittingly for many.

Once the cars hit the bump at speed, they are quickly launched into the air and then collide with the road surface, often causing drivers to lose control.

That’s apparently what happened in the wee hours of New Year’s Day when the teens ramped the railroad hump and wound up wrapped around the tree at end of the roadway.

Because of early holiday deadlines, few of our staff was in the building at the time of Friday’s wreck.

But such wrecks are not uncommon. In fact, anyone who has worked on our staff can almost immediately recognize the sound of a car crashing down in the front of our building.

Through the years I’d estimate there have been dozens of such accidents.

From the minor ones in which a part or two of the car is left lying in the roadways from the collision but the drive continues on to the more serious.

Last year a group of people ramped the hump, collided with a utility pole, snapping it off and with it, ripped our building’s telephone cables — and a fascia board.

Fortunately, in that case the injuries appeared relatively minor.

This week, we weren’t so lucky.

Our prayers go out to the teenagers and their families.

At the same time, we urge the City of Natchez to quickly look at ways to either get rid of the hump or at least force drivers to be aware of the intersection.

If leveling the hump and roadway isn’t feasible, a series of speed bumps or some signage combined with rumble strips — those little series of either raised asphalt strips or grooves cut from the asphalt which give driver an audible and tactile sensation when the tires hit the strips.

Who knows if such a thing would have prevented Friday morning’s accident, but one thing is certain.

Continuing to do nothing will lead to more and more accidents and eventually someone is going to be killed.

Something needs to be done soon. Our newspaper has to report on enough bad news without having to report on preventable bad news that’s launched past our front door.

The smell of burnt rubber, leaking antifreeze and the occasional acrid smells of a deployed airbag are ones few, if any, ever wish to smell.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.