FIVE LOSE LIVES AS BUS STRIKES CALIFORNIA TRAIN.

Tracy, Cal., Oct. 16 (AP) -- A Pacific Greyhound bus was struck broadside by a Western Pacific flyer tonight, killing five bus passengers and injuring 30 others, some gravely.
The collision occurred three miles southeast of Tracy, which is 55 miles east of San Francisco.
The bus turned completely around and then rolled over after being struck broadside by the locomotive.
There was no immediate identification of either the dead, one of whom was a sailor, or the injured. The latter was taken to San Joaquin general hospital, near Stockton.
Assistant Dist. Atty. Maxwell Willens said the bus driver, RICHARD MANNING, 43, of Oakland, told him that as he approached the crossing, he saw the red crossing light flash and applied his brakes. But the brakes, MANNING said, did not hold, and the bus stalled on the tracks.
Then MANNING heard a whistle and saw the train 300 yards away. He attempted to put the bus in reverse, but the gears jammed, he said.
About that time, the driver informed Willens, the passengers grew panicky and crowded toward the front of the bus. Finally MANNING succeeded in putting his machine in low gear, and as it moved forward, he jumped out, followed by three or four of the passengers, he said.
A moment later the train hit the rear of the bus, whirling it around and over. Many of the passengers were jammed in the wreckage, and more than an hour was required to remove them all.

Fitchburg Sentinel Massachusetts 1943-10-16

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COLLISION DEAD STANDS AT SIX.

Tracy, Cal., Oct. 16. (AP) -- The death toll Saturday stood at six, there were five injured seriously and a score of others less badly hurt, the result of Friday night's collision of a Western Pacific train and a Greyhound bus. All the dead and injured were bus passengers.
The bus driver, RICHARD MANNING, 43, of Oakland, was charged with manslaughter in an information field by Maxwell Willens, assistant district attorney, and in justice court Saturday bail was set at $10,000.
Driver MANNING said the bus stalled on the track, and that just as he got it rolling, the train hit the rear end. The train engineer, Fred Wooden of Oakland, said the train was 700 feet from the crossing when he saw the bus stop on the track.
The dead:
Yeoman Second Class HUGH LLOYD BABKA, 18, U.S.N.B., of Hawthorn, Los Angeles county.
JOSEPH H. BOYD, 58, of Wichita Falls, Texas.
KENNETH HUCKABY, 41, San Francisco.
CHARLES WALTER JOHNSON, 48, San Francisco.
GOMER J. JENKINS, 41, Berkeley.
MRS. R. E. TOMLINSON, 55, Fresno.

Salt Lake Tribune Utah 1943-10-17
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!