CROSSING SMASH

Grey River Argus, 3 December 1938, Page 7

CROSSING SMASH

. U.S.A. BUS DISASTER 26 Killed, 12 Injured hit by fast train. SALT LAKE CITY, December 1. Twenty-six students, aged twelve to sixteen, were killed, and at least twelve seriously injured, when a high school bus wafe struck by a fast goods train, during a snowstorm. A number of those injured are not expected co survive. Hysterical screaming parents jammed the local hospital, whence tne victims were taken. There was the greatest difficulty in identification. The bus was hit in the middle, and bent in the form of a narrow horseshoe. After the collision 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. Railways officials said the train was an hour behind schedule, due to the weather, and was travelling fast, probably in excess of sixty miles per hour. It appears that the engineer was on the right side of the driver’s cab of the locomotive, and the bus came from the left. The fireman screamed to him to stop. The entire floor of the hospital is filled with the crash victims. The attaches had set aside a special room for the “parents who fainted.

BODIES NOT IDENTIFIABLE. FEAR OF FURTHER DISASTERS. (Received December 2, 7.45 p.m.) SALT LAKE CITY. Dec. 2. In the bus disaster, merely chance circumstances saved a number of other children from being also on the bus. One youngster stayed at home owing to toothache; but his brother wa s killed. A girl, whose home is on the opposite side of the track,, was awaiting the bus, and she saw it hit by the .train. Physicians declared that many of those injured would be maimed for life, while others of the injured are expected to die. It is impossible to identify 'the broken bodies of many of the dead. Officials are checking the homes in the area in order to determine the exact casualty list. When the news of the tragedy reached the High School many of the children had to be forced into other buses to make the trip, to their homes, and several of the bus drivers, at first refused to leave.

Trains Collide IN QUEENSLAND. SIX CASUALTIES. (Received December 2, 11(5 p.m.) BRISBANE, December 2. A goods train collision occurred early this morning between Hughenden and Richmond. Three men were killed, namely the drivers of both trains, Herbert McMurtrie, aged 52, married; and George Bowler, aged 43, married; and also one fireman, George Galton, aged 38, married. Three others, including two railway guards and one fireman, were injured. The locomotives met head-on on a single track, while travelling at 20 miles an hour. They were completely wrecked, being hurled from the rails and overturned.