Imperial Valley press., 1931-03-30
SURVIVORS OF
BUS DISASTER
WILL RECOVER
Children Relate Details
Of Tragedy Which Took
Lives OF Six

LAMAR, Colo, March 30. UP
Life again today was all important
to Is little children who survived
one of the worst blizzards in the
history of the west.
The children, who were rescued
from their trapped school bus near
Towner after collapsing during the
height of the storm, were in hos
pital beds here fighting bravely the
pain of thawing arms and legc.
in the town of Holly, east of here,
lay the bodies of the six victims
of the tragedy-fiye children and
Carl Miller, the bus driver, who
died during a vain search for aid.
The grim tenseness this section of
Colorado has felt since the children
were found in the bus late Friday
eased somewhat today when it was
announced all the survivors prob
ably would recover, and that no
arms or legs would be lost.
Consciousness had returned to
the children, and they had learned
their school mates and Miller had
died. Despite the intense pain they
suffered they were able to tell
what they remembered of their
horrible experience.
They told of being dismissed
from the Pleasant Hill school
Thursday morning when it was ap-
parent that unless they soon
reached their homes they would be
snowbound in the school.
They told of starting for their
homes in the bus and of becoming
lost in the binding snow; of the
bus running off the road, and OF
themselves made by the bus driver
to play games so they would keep
warm"
They told how first one child and
then another collapsed from ex-
hauStion; how some went to sleep
They told how Miller, whose own
eight-year-old daughter, Mary, died
started for help, telling them to
pray.
The long, cold hours of Thursday
night were remembered by some
Huddled on the floor of the bus, the
children attempted to keep warm
The older ones gave many Of theil
clothes to the younger.
Wait For Driver
Through broken windows tht
snow sifted, and the biting wine
rushed. Long hours before the bu
seats had been burned for warmth
They waited anXiously TO,
Miller. He did not return. He la,
face down in the snow, conquered
by the storm, several miles from tn.
bus. That they did not know.
Then they remembered little o.
the scene within the bus, or Of tht
storm. Their next definite recoi.
lection was of great pain-pair
they still suffered.
The children were in extreme
pain today, as the blood once agar
slowly forced its way through theil
limbs. Their cries were not en-.
tirely of pain, however, bat also o.
grief.
They realized that never agar
would they see alive their fivt
school mates-Mary Miller, Loui.
Stonebaker, Ia, Orville Untiedt,
Bobbie Brown, 9, and Kenneth
Johnson. Z.
The storm that trapped ths
school bus was one of the worst il
40 years. When the children die
not return to their homes Thursday
their parents thought them safe a
the school. No word was received
from there until Friday search wa.
started.
Two men, H. A. Untiedt and Dave
Stonebraker, found the bus. Inside
were the children. and among thu
dead were Untiedts son and Stone,
braker's daughter.
The surviving children were tax.
en- to farm house and ther brough
here by airplane and automobil,
for medical treatment.