1984 — Jan 21, Whitefish HS wrestling team bus hits jack-knifed fuel tanker/burns, ~Essex, MT–9
–9 AP. “At least nine die in fiery bus crash.” Havre Daily News, MT, 1-22-1984, A2.
–9 AP. “Montana Town Mourns for 9 Dead After Team Bus Crashes in Storm.” NYT, 1-23-1984.
–9 Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “No blame found by bus probe.” 10-10-1984, p. 1.
–9 Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “Probe underway into fatal bus crash.” 1-24-1984, p. 1.[1]
–9 Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “Whitefish mourns bus crash victims.” 1-23-1984, p. 1.
–9 Flathead Beacon. “30 years later, survivors look back on state’s deadliest bus crash.” Missoulian, 2-2-2014.
Narrative Information
Jan 23: “The grim task continues today in Missoula: identifying the remains of victims of Saturday night’s [21st] bus-tanker collision 50 miles east of Kalispell on U.S. 2. The bus was carrying the Whitefish High School varsity and junior varsity wrestling team and cheerleaders. Nine persons died in the fiery crash. The dead included the coach, Jim Withrow, 33; assistant coach, Wayde Davis, 25; Davis’ wife, Jana, 24; Casey Davis, the couple’s 2-year-old son; Jim Byrd, 41, bus driver; Pam Fredenberg, 17, team statistician; Kim Dowaliby, 16, Tracy Maddux, 16, and Stefanie Daily, 16, all cheerleaders. Nineteen others, including the driver of the truck, survived. The driver, Harold Belcher, 63, of Cut Bank, was treated for a fractured leg at Kalispell Regional Hospital and was released Sunday. A fourth cheerleader, Sue Stocking, 16, underwent surgery for internal injuries late Saturday at Kalispell Regional Hospital and was to be moved from intensive care today, according to a hospital spokesman. Among the survivors is another Davis child, 6-year-old Brieanne, who was not seriously hurt.
“The bodies of all victims were burned beyond recognition when the bus burst into flames. Everything combustible on the bus burned. Early Sunday morning, the bodies were taken to a temporary morgue at the Whitefish Armory. They were later taken to Missoula where state forensic pathologist Dr. Ron Rivers and Kalispell forensic dentist Dr. Milton Small are working to make positive identifications, using dental records.
“The accident occurred ¼-mile west of Denny’s Underpass Inn. According to the Montana Highway Patrol, Belcher’s rig — an empty fuel-tanker semi and pup — jack-knifed on the icy highway. The bus struck the truck and tanker, which disengaged. The truck, a 1976 Peterbilt, wound up crossways in the eastbound lane; the tanker and pup trailer blocked the westbound lane. The impact tore a gaping hole in the tanker and crushed the front end of the 65-passenger bus. A motorist who was driving immediately behind the bus said it was ‘only a matter of seconds before the bus was on fire.’ The exact cause of the fire has not been determined. Sheriff Chuck Rhodes said today the gasoline tank on the bus did not rupture, although the fuel burned. He also said, contrary to the report of a passing motorist, that seats on the bus did not come loose. The backs of the seats were collapsed forward from the impact, he said.
“No one sitting in the front two seats survived. Twenty-seven people were aboard the bus. As of today, authorities had not determined whether the cause of death was the impact or the fire.
“Belcher was returning to Cut Bank after delivering a load of flight fuel to Glacier Park International Airport….today an investigator from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration was meeting with officers from the Montana Highway Patrol and the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office to determine, among other things, why the 1977 Chevrolet bus burst into flames…” (Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “Whitefish mourns bus crash victims.” 1-23-1984, p. 1.)
Jan 25: “….Browning school officials have asked the MHSA[2] to transfer the Indians from the Western A division to the Northern B. They have cited last weekend’s nine-fatality school bus accident involving the Whitefish wrestling team as a tragic example of the risks entailed in winter travel over mountain highways….” (Associated Press. “MHSA rejects proposal to drop boys gym sanction. Havre Daily News, MT, 1-25-1984, p. 6.)
Oct 10: “There will be not county inquest in the Jan. 21 Whitefish school bus crash which killed nine persons, County Attorney Ted Lympus said today. Lympus said reports received this month from the Department of Transportation and the National Transportation Safety Board show no evidence of criminal negligence. The purpose of an inquest would have been to consider possible charges of negligent homicide. ‘Nothing can be found to even imply criminal culpability,’ Lympus said. He added that an inquest could interfere with victims’ attempts to recover damages through civil suits over the crash.
“The bus, carrying the Whitefish High School wrestling team, cheerleaders and coaches, collided with an empty oil tanker truck driven by Harold C. Belcher, 63, of Cut Bank, after the truck jack-knifed across U.S. 2 near Denny’s Underpass Inn. The dead included four cheerleaders, two coaches, the wife and small son of one coach, and the bus driver, Jim Byrd of Columbia Falls.
“Lympus said the federal reports indicated that neither vehicle had any mechanical defects, tires were good, and neither Byrd nor Belcher had any traffic citations on his record. There was no evidence that either driver had been using drugs or alcohol.
“The accident happened about 6:20 p.m. on a long, gradual 2-degree curve on a wide stretch of highway which was in good repair. The truck’s speed was estimated at 15-20 miles an hour, and the bus at 45-55.
“The road was described as snowpacked and ‘in good winter travel condition.’ The Montana Department of Highways had sanded that general stretch of road from early morning until 1:30 p.m. that day, and was scheduled to resume sanding around 6 p.m.
“The bus burst into flames seconds after the impact. The nine victims, all in the front part of the bus, were burned beyond recognition, but the state medical examiner said they died from the impact of the crash, not the fire.
“Lympus said the fire apparently resulted from a rupture in a 60-gallon fuel tank below the stairwell in the bus. The tank, estimated to have contained 40 gallons of gas, was pushed forward and the filler pipe broke off, creating a hole in the top of the tank. A seam broke open in the sheet-metal floor of the bus, the reports showed.
“The crash caused most of the 27 occupants of the bus to tumble over about two rows of seats and the seat backs to collapse, according to the reports.” (Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “No blame found by bus probe.” 10-10-1984, p. 1.)
Feb 2, 2014: “….Jan. 21, 1984…the Bulldogs were returning from an afternoon dual in Browning. Driving through the winter darkness, bus driver Jim Byrd, a well-known Columbia Falls resident with 59 nieces and nephews, negotiated the narrow, snow-choked corridor of U.S. Highway 2, a two-lane, 94-mile stretch of winding road between Browning and Whitefish that tracks along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, skirts the southern border of Glacier National Park and, at its zenith, tops out on the Continental Divide and Marias Pass, at an elevation of 5,216 feet. It was around 6:30 p.m. and the bus was 20 miles east of West Glacier, homeward bound.
“A blizzard had been steadily spitting flakes throughout the day, covering the valley in a slippery vale of winter white. Before departing from Browning, the team stopped at Teeple’s IGA grocery store for snacks and to discuss the possibility of spending the night or waiting out the storm. Crossing Marias Pass would be dicey, but probably passable, they reasoned; everyone was eager to return home and sleep in their own beds. ‘We were nervous about the roads. We knew when we left that it would be tense, but it was a collective choice we made to go home. It was a team decision,’ recalls Steve Osborne, a junior at the time. ‘Being high school kids, you don’t stress about it too much. You just sit back and start yakking.’….
“At the front of the bus, members of the cheerleading squad gossiped…. The upper-classmen had taken over the back of the bus….
[Scott writes that the Whitefish HS group was expecting to go to their meet on a diesel charter bus and were surprised when the yellow school bus showed up.]
“….the fiery collision would go down in the record books as the deadliest in Montana’s history, killing nine people and injuring 18 others on board….”
Scott identifies the nine victims as:
Jim Withrow, 33, head wrestling coach.
Jim Byrd, 41, school bus driver.
Wayde Davis, 27, assistant coach.
Jana Davis, 24, wife of Wayde Davis.
Casey Davis, 3, son of Jana and Wayde Davis.
Pamela Fredenberg, 16, team statistician.
Kim Dowaliby, 16, cheerleader.
Tracy Maddux, 16, cheerleader.
Stefanie Daily, 16, cheerleader.
(Flathead Beacon (Tristan Scott). “30 years later, survivors look back on state’s deadliest bus crash.” Missoulian, 2-2-2014.)
Sources
Associated Press. “At least nine die in fiery bus crash.” Havre Daily News, MT, 1-22-1984, A2. Accessed 4-18-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/havre-daily-news-jan-22-1984-p-2/
Associated Press. “MHSA rejects proposal to drop boys gym sanction. Havre Daily News, MT, 1-25-1984, p6. Accessed 4-18-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/havre-daily-news-jan-25-1984-p-6/
Associated Press. “Montana Town Mourns for 9 Dead After Team Bus Crashes in Storm.” New York Times, 1-23-1984. Accessed 4-18-2019 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/23/us/montana-town-mourns-for-9-dead-after-team-bus-crashes-in-storm.html
Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “No blame found by bus probe.” 10-10-1984, p. 1. Accessed 4-18-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/kalispell-daily-inter-lake-oct-10-1984-p-1/
Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “Probe underway into fatal bus crash.” 1-24-1984, p. 1. Accessed 4-18-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/kalispell-daily-inter-lake-jan-24-1984-p-1/
Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, MT. “Whitefish mourns bus crash victims.” 1-23-1984, p. 1. Accessed 4-18-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/kalispell-daily-inter-lake-jan-23-1984-p-1/
Flathead Beacon (Tristan Scott). “30 years later, survivors look back on state’s deadliest bus crash.” Missoulian, 2-2-2014. Accessed 4-18-2019 at: https://missoulian.com/news/local/years-later-survivors-look-back-on-state-s-deadliest-bus/article_e117f988-8b91-11e3-8893-0019bb2963f4.html
[1] Notes that the collision took place near Essex, MT.
[2] Montana High School Association.