School Bus

At Merced, Calif., one afternoon last week, a Santa Fe freight train chuffed slowly toward a grade crossing. Also toward the crossing rattled and jounced a big school bus, packed with twoscore children on their way home. Like thousands of other children throughout the land who bus to & from school, they were playing and chattering when the shrill whistle of the locomotive sounded. Next instant the engine struck the bus broadside, sent it splintering into a ditch. Children killed, 6; children injured, 23. Death came with such a sudden roar that there was no chance for heroism, publicity, White House invitations.

Investigators found that Driver F. D. Creggar, 62, had ignored the wigwag signal at the crossing. Badly injured, lapsing into coma, he groaned: "I did not see the train."

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