Alpena, MI Beer Truck And Bus Collide, Aug 1951

TEN KILLED IN CRASH OF BUS, BEER TRUCK.

Alpena, Mich. (INS) -- At least ten persons were killed Saturday when a Greyhound bus, jam-packed with vacationers, smashed head-on with a large beer truck on the outskirts of Alpena, Mich.
Michigan state police report at least 20 of the 40 passengers aboard the bus, enroute from Mackinac City to Detroit, were hospitalized at Alpena's only hospital.
Many of the bodies were reported so mangled that identifications were almost impossible. The bus driver, ERVIN BARRETT of Mackinac City, was tentatively identified among the dead but later was found in the hospital in critical condition.
Among those listed at dead were ARTHUR AUBE, driver of the truck, and his 19-year-old helper, HAROLD BROMOUND, both of Alpena.
Three others were tentatively identified as MRS. CARL HANSEN of Detroit, MELVIN CHASE of Alpena and DARLENE GRICE of Flint, Mich.
Blood plasma was being rushed to the bus crash victims from Lansing and Detroit, some 200 miles away, as the facilities of the 100-bed Alpena hospital were pushed to care for the injured.
Ambulances, hearses and station wagons were alerted from throughout the eastern Michigan resort area to help transport the victims. State police also pressed a school bus padded with mattresses into service.
Blow torch crews worked more than an hour after the crash occurred on highway U.S. 23 to free some of the passengers trapped in the mangled bus.
One passing motorist was reported to have fainted as he witnessed the rescue attempts made to save the victims tangled in the blood-splattered wreckage. Suitcases, shopping bags, purses and camping equipment were scattered throughout the area.
According to witnesses, the truck collided with the 40-passenger bus, enroute from Mackinac City to Detroit, while trying to avoid hitting an automobile.

Cedar Rapids Gazette Iowa 1951-08-19

Continued on Page 2.