Beaver Falls, PA Greyhound Bus Accident Kills Three, Dec 1968

3 PERSONS KILLED IN BUS WRECK.

CHURCH CONVENTION DELEGATES HURT.

Beaver Falls, Pa. (UPI) -- A chartered Greyhound bus carrying 39 persons from Chicago to Washington for a church convention went off the Pennsylvania Turnpike Thursday and upset in a ditch, killing three passengers and injuring the 35 other passengers and the driver.
Most of the passengers, all from the Chicago area, were asleep when the bus left the dry roadway about 2:45 a.m., EST, at a long, gradual curve 11 miles east of the Ohio line and 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
The bus went through an opening in a guard rail, rode the shoulder, and upset in a 10-foot ditch when the driver apparently attempted to get back on the highway, state police said.
The bus was one of two chartered vehicles en route to a First Church of God convention which opened Thursday in Washington.
The dead were identified as:
BRUCE BLACKMAN, 14, of Chicago.
MRS. MARY OWEN, 58, of Evanston, Ill.
VIRGIE EVANS, 76, of Chicago.
ANGELA BENNETT, 19, of Chicago, described the crash this way: "I was sitting in the rear, half awake I guess, when I felt the bus running off the road. I didn't know what was happening. Suddenly the bus began to weave from side to side, and then it turned over. I didn't know whether I was up or down."
ELMER GUCKERT, 40, of Pittsburgh, the driver, and 14 others were admitted to nearby hospitals. The other passengers were treated and released.

The Times Recorder Zanesville Ohio 1968-12-27
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!