1931 — Aug 3, Bus goes through open drawbridge, Sampit River ~Georgetown, SC       —     23

–23  Hattiesburg American, MS. “23 Drown When Bus Plunges Over Draw.” 8-6-1931, p. 3.

–23  National Safety Council. Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.

–22  Daily News-Record, Harrisonburg, VA. “22 Colored Picnickers Drowned…” 8-5-1931, p.4.

–22  Burlington Daily Times, NC. “Picnic Bus Runs Into an Open Draw Bridge.” 8-4-1931, p.1.

 

Narrative Information

 

Aug 4:  “Georgetown, S.C., Aug. 4 – (AP) – Twenty-two picnickers, 20 of them negroes, drowned in the Sampit river three miles from here late last night^[1] when a bus in which they were returning from an all-day outing plunged through an open draw-bridge.

 

“Twelve of the bodies had been recovered today but only five of them identified. Searchers returned to their work as fast as a body was brought to shore but as the Sampit, a coastal river, is affected by the tides, their job was a tedious one.

 

“Jerome Frazier, negro newsboy of Georgetown, was the only one in the crowded vehicle to escape being trapped in the 40-foot of water • at the bridge. He smashed a window and swam out.

 

“Warren .Newton, 52; white driver of the bus and his son, Olin, 20, were among those drowned. Their bodies had not been recovered.

 

“All the negroes were residents of Georgetown and Andrews. They had engaged Newton, a farmer who used the bus to haul school children on contract, to drive them to the picnic grounds at a beach near Charleston.

 

“Magistrate H. S. Higgins, acting coroner, impaneled a jury that viewed the body of Harold Drayton, one of the few indentified. The jury found that Drayton came to his death ‘from accidental drowning while a passenger in a school bus that ran through the Sampit river bridge on route 40 near Georgetown.’ Magistrate Higgins said the same verdict would be applied to the deaths of all others.

 

“C. E. Richardson, bridge tender, one of the few witnesses of the tragedy, said the bus approached the bridge at a speed of approximately 30 miles an hour and did not slow down. After crashing into the barrier, he said, it dropped 30 feet to the Sampit which is between 36 and 40 feet deep at that point, depending on the tide.  Richardson said the bridge barrier at his end of the draw had been knocked down twice before during the nigh and that the barrier on the opposite end had also been knocked open once by automobiles which narrowly missed going into the river. He said he had asked the state highway department several weeks ago to remedy the situation.

 

“Fred Green, Georgetown white man, who had charge of the negro excursion, said Olin Newton was driving the bus when he last saw it. He said the machine was one of five engaged by the negroes for a picnic excursion to Riverside park at Mount Pleasant, near Charleston. The machine was the second one to arrive at the bridge, he said. The first having crossed safely before the draw was opened.

 

“Bloodstains found on the bridge near the barrier indicated to investigators that some of the victims had been knocked from the bus when it struck the steel bars and had then toppled from the bridge into the water.

 

“A crew of workmen, after laboring several hours with two wreckers from garages, succeeded about daylight in raising the bus to the surface.  Only one body, that of an unidentified negro, was recovered as the truck was brought up. The top of the vehicle had been torn off in the lifting operation, and state Patrolman Joe Saunders, who directed the workmen, said the other victims evidently had been spilled back into the river.  Using grappling hooks, the workmen continued their efforts to recover bodies. Hundreds of persons crowded the bank of the river to watch the search.

 

“The county coroner announced that an inquest would be held.

 

“Two other bodies were later recovered by searchers and identified as Mary George and Melvin Jones.  The first body taken out was found wrapped around the front axle of the bus. It was identified as that of Harold Drayton.

 

“When the top of the bus gave way after the vehicle had been lifted to the surface, workers placed grappling hooks around the front axle and lifted it again. In doing so the bodies in the machine spilled back into the river.

 

“The Sampit, a coastal river, is affected by the changing tides and searchers estimated that the bodies would be found at varying distances from the scene of the wreck.

 

“Jerome Frazier, the only occupant of the bus to escape, said the bus was one of four engaged by the negroes to take them to a picnic at a beach near Charleston. The buses were traveling 15 minutes apart and the one that crashed into the open draw was the second in line.

 

“Searchers were dragging the river with ropes on which had been placed enormous fish hooks in the hope that the clothing of some of the victims would be caught.”  (Burlington Daily Times, NC. “Picnic Bus Runs Into an Open Draw Bridge.” 8-4-1931, p.1.)

 

Aug 4:  “Georgetown, S.C., Aug. 4. (AP) – Twenty-two picnickers, 20 of them negroes, drowned in the Sampit river, three miles from here, late last night when a bus in which they were returning from an all-day outing plunged through an open drawbridge.  Twenty of the bodies had been recovered today [not the driver or his son], but only five of them had been identified….With the exception of several children, all the negroes ranged in age from 20 to 35.”

(Daily News-Record, Harrisonburg, VA. “22 Colored Picnickers Drowned When Bus Plunges into River.” 8-5-1931, p. 4.)

 

Blanchard: This was the deadliest non-collision bus disaster in the U.S. until May 9, 1980 when a freighter hit the Skyway bridge in Tampa, knocking out a span, causing a Greyhound bus to fall into the Bay with 26 fatalities.

 

Sources

 

Burlington Daily Times, NC. “Picnic Bus Runs Into an Open Draw Bridge.” 8-4-1931, p. 1. Accessed at:  http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=44505371&sterm

 

Daily News-Record, Harrisonburg, VA. “22 Colored Picnickers Drowned When Bus Plunges into River.” 8-5-1931, p. 4. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=186777959&sterm

 

Hattiesburg American, MS. “23 Drown When Bus Plunges Over Draw.” 8-6-1931, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=184847297&sterm

 

National Safety Council. “Greatest Number of Deaths in a Single Motor-Vehicle Accident.” Accident Facts 1970 Edition. Chicago, IL: NSC, 1970. p. 63.

 

The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “We Drowned in Drawbridge Disaster,” 8-6-1931, p. 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=100386723&sterm

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Near midnight.  (The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “We Drowned in Drawbridge Disaster,” 8-6-1931, p. 4.)