The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 1

be i a erf this section TV Cloudy and cool, clearing tonight Complete weather, p. 4A Cashwords Hire's unc way to he in. i to vmri-lf next week Kind Hess eek solve tile Cash- words I uic lo4 win 'Hie analysis of Pu.le No 103 appears today an page9A. 4 GANNETT GROUP ROCKLAND COUNTY, N.Y., FRIDAY, MARCH 24 1972 i tmvrnl' rixf' It ,1 Bus dragged V4 A MEMBER OF THE enilieil in liunl ol I'reilll it note to the visual horror of the scene, Crowds who gathered at the scene assembled mostly at the crossing, wanting to see yet repulsed by fear of what a i iii rsi f1 1 I 1 IK. 1 sv1 ft5i' i 5.

51 i 4 5i- 1 T'r 2 atOT jBSPHftWtaJT. Tangled wreck of school Iiii- lies Fireman wept af the point abiut fit yards down the tracks where it finally came to rest The bus broke hall again when it was lilted, the awk- wanl motion adding vet anoth- a Warren Inglese photo I rain scene close inspection would reveal. The onlookers' approach-avoidance conflict aided rescue workers at the crash site, although police and firemen on roads leading to and from the Congers crossing found the access routes quickly clogged. The faces of those who reached the tracks at Gil-chrest Road showed disbelief more than any other emotion. Some neighbors arrived with water and blankets for the injured.

One such Samaritan, a woman, tried to bring her offerings up to the head of the train where rescuers worked, but found herself unable to bear a close look at the remains of the bus. The woman stopped before she reached the point where she would have passed the dead bodies of two children lying under the train. She turned her face away, then asked a fireman to bring her gifts forward for her. An apparent jogger clad in a I'u 111 lo 2 Al Witt photo i- 4 s. 'UuJ j- rrr II III lllllf 7- liL Mi 1 77JXZZ3-jI: 1 mile i -1 5 4 T.

v- I 7-- m. I 1 By STCPHKN HKSSK Staff Writer At least three Nyack High School students were killed and about 40 injured at 7:55 this morning when a freight train rammed a schuil bus at an unmarked rail crossing on Gilchrest Road in Congers. The speeding I'enn Central train slammed into the center of the school bus and pushed it about a quarter of a miledown the tracks, demolishing the vehicle. a 1 children were thrown from the bus. Two bodies were lying on the tracks under the train, more than a hundred feet from the wreckage of the bus.

Emergency crews and ambulance squads from the area poured into the site of the tragedy, at the south end of Congers Lake. The injured children had been removed from the twisted wreckage of the bus by res-cuers using torches and wrecking equipment by 9 a.m. and were being rushed to Nyack Hospital. Administrators from the Nyack school district said the bus was carrying youngsters from the Valley Cottage area to Nvack High School The bus, owned by Rockland Bus Lines Inc. of Congers, a bus contractor, had been traveling east on Gilchrest Road when it was hit by the train on a run from Weehawk-en.

N.J. to Selkirk. Driver Joseph Lark in was injured in the crash and was unable to give police a statement immediately. Rockland Medical Examiner I)r. Frederick Zugibe.

working at the scene, said he had confirmed that three youngsters were dead. There was no barrier gate or warnine lights at the railroad crossing, and resklents who I lo 2 List of injured This incomplete list of students admitted to Nyack Hospital was compiled from data gathered from nurses and others at the scene. All were from Valley Cottage. Identification of the dead has been withheld pending notification of kin. Paul It ice David Palmer Martha Garrison Matthew Garrison David Dwyer Irene Ferina David Heetham G.

McEnery Raymond Pan eJ la Debra Panel la Mark Gessler Pam Pilgrim Ted Gens Tim ilk ins Jeff Palmer Cliff Macayio John Medcwicko Robert Cavallo David Mauterer Teddy Huffman Greg Nolan Peter Doran Bill Wilkins Justine Clarke Jill Hoffman Carolyn Owen Claudia Moran Diane Burdick Barbara Trunz Guy Davis Virginia Miraglia Kathy Hart Paul Pilgrim Joseph Lark in William Thomas Stephen Ward John Fletcher Irene Feirara ON THE INSIDE Parents gather at Nyack Hospital to learn fate of their children. Page 2A Disaster units called to scene rehearsed only Tuesday. Page 3A Nyack teacher describes traumatic experience at death scene. Page 3A Veteran newsman horrified by school bus grade-crossing disaster. Page 2A Photos at accident scene and Nyack Hospital.

Pages 2A, 3A 15 lonsi; Staff Writer A fireman walked alotii' down the tracks, picking scutttTiil pieces of Spanisli homework, hand drawn pictures, notes passed to class mates Like others at the si nie. lie rr mi. Behind turn at the side of impact, a large section of the bus stood mangled bevmid identification at the spot where it had been ripped away and left behind the passing train. Near that piece of wreckage, two high school girls anil a boy rifled through other papeis. trying to learn whether a certain friend had been on the bus 'Hie girls burst into te.us when they found a page of their friend's homework.

Klsewhere in the pandemonium that still prevailed two hours after the crash, workmen were using earth-moving equipment to lift the bus from Doctor ami mir i ilk eriiil iew ol' I rain ami hiis accident shows crossroad al lop was drained lo slop at lower section i work on a crush iclim a I I he Nyack Hospital emergency room.