1938 — Dec 1, Train hits Jordan High School Bus at Crossing, Midvale, UT — 26

— 26 Utah Department of Public Safety. “Nation’s Deadliest Traffic Accident.” 2011.
— 24 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p
— 24 Salt Lake Tribune. “Funeral Services Held For More Bus Victims,” Dec 6, 1938, p. 1.

Narrative Information

Utah Department of Public Safety: “On Thursday, December 1, 1938, a yellow school bus lumbered down a narrow county road enroute to Jordan High School. Farrold Silox had driven the Bluffdale and Riverton route for the past three years. The 29 year old driver had memorized the names and address of all the children who rode his bus. The roads that morning were slippery, covered with a light dusting of snow. A low fog hung near the open bodies of water and depressions in the ground.

“Delayed for over one hour, the Flying Ute, a Denver & Rio Grande Western freight train with 51 cars was northbound and was trying to make up for lost time. Farrold had crossed the rural railroad tracks several hundred times in the past three years. He knew the train schedules. He had never seen any trains on this crossing at this time of day. Farrold failed to see the Flying Ute – until the bus was already on the tracks.

“The school bus was struck broadside and split in half. The largest portion of the bus was thrown 40 yards northwest of the crossing. Bodies of children were thrown on both sides of the tracks. The cab of the bus was carried on the front of the locomotive for a distance of 2,000 feet down the track. Several children and the bus driver were trapped inside.

“It was the nation’s worst motor vehicle accident on record at that time. There were 38 students plus the driver on the bus. The bus driver and 25 children ultimately died from this tragic incident.

“Patrolman Bob Howard was one of the officers who responded. ‘It was horrible,’ Bob said. ‘Your heart was aching, but there was no time for remorse. We had a job to do. There were lots of children who were badly hurt and who would expire in short order if we didn’t keep our wits about us.’ As Patrolman Howard searched through the wreckage looking for survivors, he came across his niece and nephew. ‘I guess I was kind of numb from that point on,’ he recalled. ‘As a patrolman you soon learn just how fragile life really is’.” (Utah Department of Public Safety. “Nation’s Deadliest Traffic Accident.” 2011.)

Newspapers

Dec 3: “The Jordan high school bus carrying 39 students to an institution in which they had been winning recognition as civic minded, progressive young Americans, undertook to cross a railway track in front of an oncoming train making up lost time. The result was the most frightful, shocking gruesome tragedy that ever occurred in Utah. Running at high speed, the freight train of 50 cars could not be stopped until nearly its entire length had passed the point of impact. Along the road from caboose to engine were dead and dying boys and girls, crushed, mangled and dismembered, while some survivors, thrown clear of the tracks, were moaning, trying to lift their bleeding heads or stand on broken limbs, dazedly striving to get their bearings and wondering what had happened….

“In charge of the truck of doom was a young man 29 years of age, a neighbor and friend of the victims, a careful driver and a conscientious custodian of the students. Owing to a fog and snow storm it is assumed he neither saw nor heard the approaching train. Further than that no one may learn the facts, as he was killed with his charges, leaving a young wife and babe to mourn his untimely death….

“This makes it impressively imperative that something be done to prevent a recurrence of such an accident. No school bus in the state of Utah ought to be permitted to cross the tracks of a steam or electric railway except where a moving signal is located. As rapidly as possible every such crossing should be changed to an underpass or overpass.” (Salt Lake Tribune (Editorial). “Utah’s Saddest Tragedy Takes Youth and Innocence,” December 3, 1938, p. 14.)

Dec 6: “Sorrowing Jordan school district communities, still living a tragedy-stunned existence as a result of Thursday’s disastrous train-bus commission, Monday completed services of final tribute to all but one of the catastrophe’s 24 victims….the accident, which occurred Thursday at 8:43 a.m. [occurred] when the D. & R.G.W. railroad’s ‘Flying Ute’ plowed into the Jordan high school bus four miles south of Midvale.” (Salt Lake Tribune. December 6, 1938, p. 1)

Sources

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Funeral Services Held For More Bus Victims,” Dec 6, 1938, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=99446544

Utah Department of Public Safety. “Nation’s Deadliest Traffic Accident.” 2011. Accessed at: http://publicsafety.utah.gov/highwaypatrol/history_1939/deadliest_accident.html