1937 — Jan 25, Tamiami Trail Tours bus goes in Everglades canal ~Coral Gables, FL– 17

— 17 AP. “Seventeen Die as Bus Goes Into Canal.” Sarasota Herald, FL, 1-26-1937, pp. 1-2.
— 17 Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. “Negligence Caused Bus Crash, Jury Finds,” 1-30-1937, 5.
— 13 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 423.

Narrative Information

Jan 25: “Miami, Jan. 25 – (AP) – An express bus plunged from the scenic Tamiami trail today and carried 17 of its 30 passengers, many of them northern tourists, to death by drowning in the wilds of the Everglades.

“The big vehicle overturned and rolled into a canal 12 feet deep which parallels the lonely highway across the southern end of the peninsula. It was the worst tragedy in the transportation annals of the state. The passengers were trapped as the bus sank in the stream, where Seminoles pole their dugouts and hunt for alligators. Only a corner of the roof remained above the water.

“The driver, Bill Hammond, 23, of Tampa, who escaped with a slight cut, said he thought the steering gear broke. ‘I was driving at a moderate rate of speed when something happened,’ he recounted at a hospital. ‘Either the steering gear broke or the right front wheel collapsed. For 30 or 40 yards I was able to hold the bus on the highway and then it swerved to one side and the next I knew we were in the canal. The porter and I broke the glass and crawled out. When I got out of the water, passing motorists had stopped. I thought we should go into the canal and break windows in an effort to get people out but the motorists thought air might still be in the bus and the people might still be alive.

“It took divers with helmets to extricate the bodies later. Tamiami Trail Tours, Inc. operators of the line, numbered the passengers at 27 from Miami and three from Coral Gables but had no record of their names. Identification was made with difficulty from their personal effects at the mortuaries….

“Chief D. E. Sox of Coral Gables said police measurements showed the bus traveled approximately 300 feet from where the first tire marks appear on the pavement to the place the bus finally went into the canal. The marks show, Chief Sox said, ‘the driver must have fought desperately to hold the bus in the road.’

“Capt. Henry Gleason of the Miami fire department, who headed the mechanics named by Peace Justice O. B. Sutton to inspect the ill-fated bus, made a preliminary investigation soon after the bus reached here. He said he found the left front tire blown out, and the entire front wheel assembly, including wheels, axle and springs, torn from the chassis except for the right spring hanger. Captain Gleason said he was unable to determine whether the tire ruptured before or after the bus left the road. He believed the assembly was torn from place as the bus tore through heavy roadside boulders.

“Inspectors kept in the mind of Gilliland, that the driver, on his knees, inspected the read end of the bus when a stop was made in Coral Gables. ‘I remarked to my wife afterward,’ Gilliland said, ‘the rear end didn’t sound just right to me.’

“Lieut. J. G. Gallup of the state road patrol was of the opinion the bus’s brake system may have been disabled when the 19,000 pound vehicle first struck the boulders, causing the driver to completely lose control….

“The vehicle finally was drawn ashore by the combined strength of three regular wreckers and three derrick equipped trucks, two of them borrowed from the telephone company.” (Associated Press. “Seventeen Die as Bus Goes Into Canal.” Sarasota Herald, FL, 1-26-1937, pp. 1-2.)

Jan 30: “Coral Gables, Fla., Jan 30 – Negligence on the part of the Tamiami Trail Tours, Inc., was cause of a bus crash Monday [Jan 25] which took 17 lives, a coroner’s jury found today. After hearing testimony from survivors of the crash and mechanics who inspected the wreckage, the jury deliberated nearly two hours before returning its verdict. It said:

Cause of the accident was negligence on the part of Tamiami Trail Tours, Inc. for failure to maintain the bus in a safe condition.

“Fifteen persons survived the wreck which occurred when the big cross-state bus plunged into a drainage canal near here trapping and killing 17 of its passengers under water. Three of the injured are still in local hospitals.” (Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. “Negligence…” 30 Jan 1937, p. 5.)

Sources

Associated Press. “Seventeen Die as Bus Goes Into Canal.” Sarasota Herald, FL, 1-26-1937, pp. 1-2. Accessed 7-23-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/sarasota-herald-jan-26-1937-p-1/

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

Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. “Negligence Caused Bus Crash, Jury Finds,” 30 Jan 1937. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=1599065