6 DIE AS BUS RAMS TRAILER.

Columbia, S.C. (AP) -- Six passengers were killed early today and at least 14 others injured when a Continental Trailways bus slammed into the rear of a standing tractor trailer truck on Interstate Highway 26, three miles north of Columbia.
The truck had stopped after striking an automobile.
An emergency lighting system set up by firemen to aid in rescue work revealed jumbled wreckage, moaning passengers and twisted seats scattered about the highway following the 4:30 a.m. crash.
Richland County officers climbed through shattered windows to remove dead and injured.
The right side of the bus was almost sheared off and its top was peeled back. It was en route from Asheville, N.C., to Columbia and then was to go to Charleston, S.C.
The dead were identified as:
MELVIN GRANT, Ritter, S.C.
MELVIN WEAVER and his wife ESTHER, Fredericksburg, Ohio.
STEPHEN D. BENNETT, Erwin, Tenn.
CARY D. TIPTON, Erwin, Tenn.
RICHARD THAGGART, Dallas, N.C.
Names of the victims were not released until their families were notified.
Injured were taken to two Columbia hospitals. Four injured servicemen later were transferred to the base hospital at nearby Ft. Jackson.
The bus driver, MARVIN RHODES of Columbia, was not critically hurt. The tractor-trailer driver, DONALD GOAN, 29, of Morristown, Tenn., escaped injury.
GOAN'S rig was loaded with canned goods destined for the Naval base at Charleston. The consignment was shipped by the Bush Brothers Produce Co. of Dandridge, Tenn.
The bus, the tractor-trailer and the automobile all were southbound on the four-lane interstate highway.
GOAN said a car in front of him swerved and he was unable to avoid striking it a glancing blow, knocking the vehicle across the median and across the two northbound lanes. It tore through a wire fence bordering the southbound lane.
GOAN said he stopped immediately, leaving his lights on and the four-way blinker system operating while he went across the median to check on the passengers in the automobile.
He said a man and a young woman in the car did not appear seriously hurt, but when the girl complained of the cold he said he went back to the truck to get her a blanket.
He said as he was mounting his cab the bus slammed into the rear of his rig, knocking him to the pavement.

Charleston Daily Mail West Virginia 1967-02-01
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!