Brantley Countians are remembering a deadly train-school bus accident 100 years ago on November 2, 1925.
According to various newspapers across the United States including the New York Times and the Associated Press (AP), eight children died and 21 were injured.
Atlantic Coast Line’s New York to Florida passenger train - the “Everglades Limited” - collided mid-section with the loaded bus taking children to school at approximately 8:10 a.m., at Bennett’s crossing.
According to witnesses, a freight train had been “cut in two” and obstructed the view of the track.
Elroy Strickland, the 19year-old bus driver who suffered a fractured leg, told railroad officials “there was a misty rain at the time and all the side curtains were up.” When the bus approached the crossing he said he asked one of the boys to look to the north to see if a train was approaching.
“At the same time,” he said, “I looked toward the south. Just as the bus reached the crossing the train crashed into it.”
The terrific impact of the heavy locomotive threw the bus a distance of 25 feet and strewed its occupants along the right of way. Three of the children were killed instantly.
The driver of the bus also said a freight train parked on a siding, prevented a view of the railway track for any distance. One of the children was sent ahead to see if a train was coming. The child sent as a lookout was killed instantly.
It has not been learned why the bus followed behind the lookout instead of waiting for the child to report.
The dead were Doris Herrin, 14; May Thornton, 12; Audrey Mae Johns, 12; Durwood Dowling, 7; Riley Hickox, 7, Thelma Wilson, 12; Anna Bell Wilson, 16; Herschel Lewis, 11; Frank Lewis, 11; Pearl Strickland, 17; Burras Todd, 13; and Willie May Harris, 8.
A relief train, made up in Nahunta immediately after the collision, conveyed the victims to the Waycross Atlantic Coast Line hospital and families of the children hurried there.
Reported injured were Lula May Henderson, 9; Herbert Robinson, 11; J.P. Robinson, 7; Wylena Dowling, 6; Jeaunette Dowling, 9; Gertie Lewis, 18; Birdie Lewis, 16; Lynella Thornton, 16; Edna Lyons, 8; Doyle Dowling, 7; Creola Dowling, 8; Cecil Dowling, 8; Archie Lyons, 13; Mami Roberts, 11; Alice Lucille Harris, 6; Katie May Wilson, 12; Lula May Henderson; L. Roy Strickland, 19.
Several members of the faculty at the Nahunta school went to the hospital to learn of the fate of their pupils and to offer assistance in caring for the injured, The Brantley Countian newspaper reported.
