The Phoenix index., 1941-11-01
Relatives Rush
CIantoIi To
Identity Dead
Believe Cause of
Wreck Sealed With
y deceased Driver

CLANTON, Ala, -(SNS)- Rela-
tives poured into this little city
Monday seeking to identify char
red bodies of Is persons who dled
here late Sunday night a BUS
crash and fire.
Late Monday one of the five
identified dead was listed as Wal
ter w. Johnson, 19-year-old colored
youth of Childersburg, Ala.
Three colored residents of Birm-
ingham were in hospitals, but their
injuries were not serious. They were
listed as Mr.. and Mrs. Sam Terry
and Robert Taylor.
1L was feared that at leaSt five
of the dead where colored persons.
DRIVER is HERO
Witnesses were quick to praise W.
P. Alton, Birmingham, substitute
for the regular driver on the Mont
gomery- ry-Birmingham, run who gave
his life in vain attempt to save his
passengers.
Alton died Monday in hospital
of burns he suffered Sunday night
when >he re-entered the fiery bus
to save those trapped inside.
The bus driven by Alton struck
the concrete railing of a bridge
four miles south of here. Almost
instantly, it was a mass of flames
The blaze was visible for several
miles.
FIRE BEFORE CRASH
Mack Stephens, international
News Service writer, lives near the
scene of the accident and was one
of the first to reach the blazing
vehicle. He quoted the bus driver
as saying the bus was afire before
it hit the bridge abutment.
Coroner j. Nell Martin said he
was at loss in seeking to deter
mine the cause of the accident
unless the driver looked doWr
maybe at a fire breaking out un-
der MIN, and hit the bridge"
1t was reasoned by state officials
that the rear end of the bus struck
the bridge, causing the gasoline
tank to explode. Immediately fol-
lowing the crash, the bus was en-
veloped in flames. The vehicle
struck one end of the bridge anC
came to a halt at the other end
officials said
Chris Crumpler, of Enterprise
Alabama who escaped by breaking
Ala, who escaped by breaking his
way through window, said he
felt the bus swerve and hit the
bridge. Instantly the interior OF
the bus was a mass of flames, ano
I started through a window"
Mack Stephens said women ano
men were screaming when he
reached the scene. He told of see
ing the driver rush back into the
bus and bring out man. Another
man, his clothes on fire, tumblec
out of the bus, according tt
Stephens.
EIGHT BELIEVED SAVED
Eight persons were believed tt
have gotten out of the bus.
Stephens said he carried foul
persons to d hospital, coloree
man in a pickup truck carried
one and an ambulance picked vi
two of the injured
1T was the most horrible thing
I have ever seen in my life" de-
clared Stephens
At Montgomery, Conrad H
Ohme, chief inspector for the STATE
Public Service Commission, eX
pressed the opinion that ''no on'
will ever know the real cause O.
the accident because Of the deatf
OF the bus driver.
"It appeared Ohme said in hi
official report, "that the rear enc
of the bus must have struck tn
bridge which caused an explosion
The bus was brought to a stol
after it had crossed the bridge.
when I got there the bus wa
off the right-of-way. There i
nothing left Of it except the chas
sis which is badly burned ant
scrap iron. 1t is my opinion tina
no one will ever know how it al
happened because the driver VIII
could give the hest information
is dead. 1t is horrible scene"