BUS TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1938, Page 5

BUS TRAGEDY

BEGEM BODIES DEAD NOT lOINTIFIASLE. (Per Press Association—Copyright). SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 2. In the bus disaster, merely chance circumstances saved a numner of other children from being also on the bus. One youngster stayed ,at home, owing to toothache, but hii'bfother was 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 oFThe 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 he forced into other buses to make the trip to their homes, and several of the bus drivers, at first, refused to leave. : " ' !&->■' v TRAINS COLLIDE. THREE MEN KILLED. BRISBANE, December 2. A goods train collision occurred early this morning between Hugenden and Richmond. Three men were killed, namely the drivers of both trains, Herbert McMurtrie, aged 52, married;* and George Howler, aged 43, married; and also 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.