1937 — March 24, Blowout, Roller-Skate Team Bus Hits Bridge, Fire, Salem, IL — 21

–21 Ogden Standard-Examiner (UT). “Other Major Bus Crashes,” December 2, 1938, p. 7-A.
–21 Seylaz, John. “The Day the Skating Almost Stopped.” Derby Memoirs website.
–20 Alton Evening Telegraph, IL. “Bus Crash Toll Raised to 20 by…Death.” 3-25-1937, 1.
–20 NFPA. “Fires in Which There Was Loss of Life, First Quarter, 1937.” Quarterly, Apr 1937.
–20 National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 140.
–18 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p.
–18 Joplin Globe, MO. “18 Persons Die in Blazing Bus Upset by Blowout.” 3-25-1937, p. 1.
–17 Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. “17 Die in Bus Tragedy.” 3-24-1937, p. 1.

Narrative Information

Seylaz: “It was approximately 11:00 in St. Louis on that March 24, 1937 morning. A group of people that skated for the infant of sports, Roller Derby climbed into the bus that was to take the group to Cincinnati for a two-week stop. The sport had been invented only a year and a half earlier by Leo Seltzer in Chicago. Its popularity had grown to make it a traveling show. On this morning, the 14 skaters and 9 other Derby personnel piled into the 2 year old Greyhound bus….

“We do know that 70 miles east of St. Louis, one and one-quarter miles outside of Salem, Illinois on US Highway 50, that bus headed toward Cincinnati suffered a terrible disaster. Approximately 75 feet before reaching the bridge, the bus, which was only going about 40 miles an hour, endured a front right tire blowout. As Dick Thomas wrestled with the steering wheel to try and maintain control, the bus flipped onto its side and skidded along the bridge, eventually hitting a concrete abutment and bursting into flames. It was recalled that the gas tanks were severed and gas was flying everywhere. Dick Thomas tried to make his way out through the broken windshield, but couldn’t find his way. Eventually, he climbed out of the side window. He then pulled his wife Ruth out who had been just behind him. At the hospital, he was quoted, ‘I pulled another girl out, and then the flames hit me and blinded me. My wife helped me walk down the road. People outside the bus were screaming but it didn’t seem that any of those in the bus were screaming.’ Don Flannery was also a survivor who could speak….

“Eighteen people died immediately in the crash, 5 were brought to hospitals. Later that night, Emily Thomas, the wife of the bus driver passed away of severe burns. It has been quoted as being said that Ted Mullen, the 35-year-old announcer, also severely burned, whispered to doctors, ‘Do you think I’ll ever be able to skate?’ When the doctor assured him he would, he responded, ‘Funny. I was never able to skate before.’ Ted also died that evening. One month later, John ‘Schoolboy’ Creekmore passed. The doctors valiantly tried with transfusions and the like but Creekmore was too badly injured.

“Twenty-three people boarded that bus on the fateful morning of March 24, 1937. Only Don Flannery, who later rejoined the Derby and Dick Thomas the bus driver survived. It almost ended the ‘babe of sports’, only a year and a half into its existence, but popularity demanded it continue and the skaters pressed on into what was a nice run….” (Seylaz, John. “The Day the Skating Almost Stopped.” Derby Memoirs website.)

Newspapers:

March 24, Associated Press: “Salem, Ill., March 24. – (AP) – A tire blowout hurled a private bus against a concrete bridge abutment and turned it into a blazing wreck in which 18 persons, including a 4-year-old girl, were killed today. Only five persons survived one of the worst disasters in the history of motor bus transportation. Two of them were so seriously injured they may die.

“The bus, loaded with a professional roller-skating troupe, en route from St. Louis to Cincinnati,
O., was going down a slight grade when its right front tire blew out about 50 feet from the bridge on United States highway No. 50, two miles west of here. The heavy machine careened crazily, dug into the soft shoulder of the highway and rammed into the bridge abutment with terrific force. Hurled on its side, the bus burst into flames when its gasoline tank was smashed. ‘The survivors said the bus appeared to explode and then there was fire all over and all were caught in it,’ reported Dr. H. L. Logan of the Salem community hospital, where the injured were taken. ‘I can still hear my pals’ screams of terror,’ Don Flanery of Kansas City, a professional roller-skater, told the Chicago American over long-distance telephone. ‘They were trapped in a regular mass of fire. The boys as well as the girls were hysterical and all fought like mad to get out.”

“Flanery managed to crawl out of a window of the bus, but he suffered first-degree burns when he attempted to rescue Miss Ruth Hill, of Kansas City, his fiancée. At the hospital, attendants quoted him as saying: ‘She called to me twice: I finally found her. I tried to pull her out, but she was pinned and I couldn’t move her.’ The attendants reported he wept as he asked, ‘I did the best I could for her, didn’t I?’

“Dick Thomas of Chicago, the driver, his bride, Mrs. Emily Thomas, also of Chicago, John L. (Schoolboy) Creekmore, Miami, Fla., and-Ted Mullen, Portland, Ore., also escaped from the flaming bus. Dr. Logan said Mrs. Thomas and Mullens had slight chances to live.

“The flames, which mounted 40 feet in the air, turned the bus into a funeral pyre for those trapped in it when it crashed and overturned. The bus smoldered for more than an hour after the accident…. Omar McMackin, mayor of Salem and owner of the undertaking establishment, said the bodies were ‘burnt to a crisp’ and identification would be ‘almost impossible,’ except through dental work….” (Joplin Globe, MO. “18 Persons Die in Blazing Bus Upset by Blowout.” 3-25-1937, p1.)

March 24, Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL: “Salem, Ill., Mar. 24 — Seventeen persons were believed killed in a bus accident three miles west of Salem on Highway 50 today when the bus hit a concrete bridge, overturned and burst into flames. Apparently a rear tire blew out. Only four bodies had been removed in mid-afternoon and thirteen were still trapped in the flaming vehicle. The bus left St. Louis at 10:30 a. m. with a group of Roller Derby, Incorporated contestants who were to compete in a derby opening in Cincinnati Thursday.” (Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. “17 Die in Bus Tragedy.” 3-24-1937, p. 1.)

March 25, Associated Press: “Salem, Ill., March 25 (AP) – Death of Mrs. Emily Thomas of Chicago in a hospital here today brought the toll in Wednesday’s [24th] crash of a bus carrying a roller skating derby troupe from St. Louis to 20. The three survivors of the accident which carried members of a professional roller skating troupe to death in the flaming wreckage of the privately owned motorbus, remained in serious condition. They were removed early today to a St. Louis hospital, Richard S. Kaplan, Gary, Ind., general counsel for the Transcontinental Roller Derby Association, Inc., announced at Salem….” (Alton Evening Telegraph, IL. “Bus Crash Toll Raised to 20 by Woman’s Death.” 3-25-1937, p. 1.)

Sources

Alton Evening Telegraph, IL. “Bus Crash Toll Raised to 20 by Woman’s Death.” 3-25-1937, 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=117667093&sterm=salem+bus+bridge

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL. “17 Die in Bus Tragedy.” 3-24-1937, p. 1. Accessed 3-27-2013 at: http://newspaperarchive.com.

Joplin Globe, MO. “18 Persons Die in Blazing Bus Upset by Blowout.” 3-25-1937, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=166879500&sterm=salem+bus+bridge

National Fire Protection Association. “Fires in Which There Was Loss of Life, First Quarter, 1937.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, April 1937.

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.

Ogden Standard-Examiner, UT. “Other Major Bus Crashes,” 12-2-1938, p. 7-A. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=49482393

Seylaz, John. “The Day the Skating Almost Stopped.” Derby Memoirs website. Accessed 3-27-2013 at: http://derbymemoirs.bankedtrack.info/mem_bus.html