Word: bus
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Near five o'clock, however, a lone bus stole furtively away from Essex with no calling from the loudspeaker, lest the party be broken up on the spot...
...blue and white bus, with 20 passengers aboard, was 2½ hours out of Dallas, pounding north along two-laned U.S. Highway 69-75 through a heavy nighttime thunderstorm, when it suddenly skidded off the road and slammed sideways into a dead tree that broke with an eerie crunch. No one was seriously injured. Then freckled-faced Shirley Stith, 23, screamed out for her 18-month-old daughter Melanie Jane, who had been thrown through a hole in the bus's side...
...through the hole. As she touched the ground, there was a flash of blue sparks, and she crumpled to the ground. In breaking, the tree had pulled down a 2,400-volt power line, left the wire draped as a single-strand shroud over the metal hulk of the bus...
...they stayed in their seats they would survive; if they tried to climb out, or touched metal, they would probably be electrocuted. Woodenly, 19 survivors huddled inside, gasped as they heard Melanie Jane whimpering close by. As the lightning flashed they could see the baby crawling back toward the bus. Chicago-bound Eduardo Ramos shouted for her to go back, to stay away. But in each glimpse she came closer. Suddenly, after an agonizing half-hour, there was a quick hiss of sparks. Said Eduardo Ramos: "The baby was quiet then. We couldn't hear it crying any more...
...power company. The power company pulled the switch on the line, and patrolmen headed out to the wreckage, urged the passengers to come on out. But they refused to move until a power and light man showed up, climbed up and cut the line away from the bus. After that the ambulances took Shirley Stith and daughter Melanie Jane off to Madonna Hospital at Denison, both dead of electrocution...