1966 — Feb 1, farm labor bus hit by Seaboard Air Line train engine south of Miami, FL–18

–18 Anniston Star, AL. “18 Aboard Bus Killed In Crash.” 2-2-1966, p. 1.
–18 United Press Int. “Bus-Train Wreck Kills 18 Workers.” Anniston Star, AL. 2-2-1966, B3.

Narrative Information

Feb 2: “Miami (UPI) – A bus carrying 34 Puerto Ricans from a strawberry field to a migrant labor camp was smashed dead center by a freight locomotive at a rural crossing Tuesday night [Feb 1]. Eighteen workers were killed and the others injured.

“Bodies were strewn along the railroad tracks and the bus was dragged 150 yards from the crossing, where a railroad warning light had been installed recently but was not working. The dead were left while the injured were taken through a snarl of traffic caused by sightseers and homeward bound motorists to South Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospitals….

“[One] of the injured, 18-year-old Manuel Acosta, said that he had heard a warning. ‘I head the horn of the bus. I heard the train horn. But the train couldn’t stop and the bus couldn’t stop.’

“The train, pulling only a caboose and with three crewmen aboard, rammed the bus at dusk in southwest Dade (Miami) County and bulldozed it along the tracks for 150 yards. One of the crewmen, E.B. Shaw, said the engine was travelling about 30 miles an hour on its way to pick up a load of produce at Princeton, Fla.” (United Press Int.. “Bus-Train Wreck Kills 18 Workers.” Anniston Star, AL. 2-2-1966, B3.)

Sources

Anniston Star, AL. “18 Aboard Bus Killed In Crash.” 2-2-1966, p. 1. Accessed 5-8-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/anniston-star-feb-02-1966-p-1/

United Press International. “Bus-Train Wreck Kills 18 Workers.” Anniston Star, AL. 2-2-1966, B3. Accessed 5-8-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/anniston-star-feb-02-1966-p-15/