MANY KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1938, Page 9

MANY KILLED.

SHOCKING TRAGEDY. School Bus Struck by Fast Goods Train. HEARTRENDING SCENES. United Press Association.—Copyright. NEW \ ORK, December 2. Twenty-six students, aged from 12 to 18, were killed and at least 12 others were seriously injured, when a high school bus was struck by a fast goods train near Salt Lake City during a snowstorm. A number of the injured are not expected to survive. Hysterical, screaming parents jammed the local hospital, to which the victims were taken. There was the greatest difficulty in identification of the bodies. The bus was hit in the middle and was bent into a narrow horseshoe. The train continued for a quarter of a mile, strewing the track with dismembered bodies, books. band instruments, luncheon boxes and the wreckage of the bus. The dead include the driver of the bus. Railway officials said the train was an hour behind schedule, due to the weather, and was travelling fast, probably at over tiO miles an hour. It appears the engineer was on the right side of the driver's cab of the locomotive, and the hus came from the left. The fireman screamed to him to stop. An entire floor of the hospital was filled with the victims of the crash, and a special room had to be set aside for parents who fainted. Chance circumstances saved a number of children from being in the bus. One youngster stayed at home with toothache. but his brother was killed. In another case a girl, whose home was on the opposite side of the railway track and who was awaiting the bus, saw the train hit the vehicle. Doctors said many of those injured would be maimed for life, and others are expected to die. It was impossible to identify the broken bodies of many of the dead. Officials are checking the homes in the area to determine the exact casualty list. When the news of the tragedy reached the high school, many children had to be forced into buses to make the trip home, and several drivers at first refused to leave.