3 FROM KINGSPORT AMONG 14 DEAD; 15 INJURED AS BUS AND TRUCKCOLLIDE ON "BONE DRY" PAVEMENT. The worst traffic accident inNortheast Tennessee history -- the collision Saturday morning of aGreyhound bus and tractor trailer on U.S. 11-W which killed 14persons including a Kingsport housewife -- spurred new demandsSaturday night for completion of Interstate 81 from Knoxville toKingsport.
Senator Howard Baker called the grinding crash, which reducedboth vehicles to masses of twisted junk, "catastrophic evidence ofthe intolerable hazardous conditions which exist on thishighway."
MRS. WANDA CAMPBELL, 26, 117 Warrior Dr., was among the dead.DON BOSWELL, 20, 2008 Westwind Dr., was critically injured, whileMRS. ELLEN DELANEY, 905 Maple St., suffered a broken leg and waslisted "fair" Saturday night.
Baker said he has urged National Transportation and SafetyBoards representatives to make a full investigation of theaccident, and hopes "this tragic loss of life will spur immediateaction to avoid further carnage on this highway."
The senator pointed out that only last Wednesday, in hearingsbefore the Roads Subcommittee of the Public Works Committee, he haddemanded that Transportation Secretary John Volpe halt policieswhich delay construction of interstate highways and which penalizestates like Tennessee which have already completed much of theirown interstate systems.
Baker said he asked Volpe to speed apportionment of funds tofill in gaps between Tennessee's existing sections ofInterstate.
With Interstate 81 still under construction, U.S. 11-W is amajor artery for north and southbound truck traffic and has one ofthe highest accident rates of any road in Tennessee.
"Because of the heavy truck traffic on that highway," commentedTennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Guy Nicholson, "It was just a matterof time until something like this happened."
"I hope they do something about that highway," said J. GUYBOSWELL, father of the injured youth. "With a four-lane road, Ifeel sure it wouldn't have happened."
The Kingsport victim, MRS. CAMPBELL, was the wife of Harvey F.Campbell. They moved to Kingsport three months ago from his hometown of Concord, Tenn., she was reared in Lenoir, N.C. They had nochildren.
CAMPBELL said his wife flew to East Chicago, Ind., a week ago tovisit her mother, Mrs. Mavis Fletcher, and that the mother haddecided to return with her to Kingsport for a visit. MRS. FLETCHER,55, also was killed.
Young BOSWELL, a sophom*ore at the University of Tennessee, wascoming home for the weekend. He suffered broken ribs and a wristand apparently serious neck injuries, and was listed
"critical" Saturday night at St. Mary's Hospital inKnoxville.
His father is employed by Tennessee Eastman Co., and his motheris a teacher at Sullivan Elementary School.
MRS. DELANEY, a registered nurse at Holston Valley CommunityHospital, was transferred to Kingsport from Morristown - HamblenHospital. She suffered a broken leg and other injuries.
MRS. DELANEY reportedly told nurses at the hospital she wasasleep when the accident happened, and awoke on a stretcher.
The bus was split in two by the impact and the tractor-trailer,loaded with tar paper and paint, exploded in an inferno that meltedmuch of the vehicle.
Greyhound said the bus was bound from Knoxville, Tenn., to NewYork City by way of Roanoke and Washington. It had left Knoxvilleat 3:40 a.m. EDT, 10 minutes behind schedule, and was to havearrived in Roanoke at noon.
Authorities declined to speculate on the cause of the accident,but investigators were checking reports the bus may have skiddedafter rounding a curve.
Capt. Nicholson said the dead included the drivers of bothvehicles and 12 of the 27 passengers on the bus. The 15 injured buspassengers, three of whom were treated and discharged, were takento hospitals in Morristown, Knoxville and Kingsport.
Bean Station is a small community on 11-W about midway betweenKnoxville and Kingsport. The wreck occurred almost in front of theBean Station Baptist Church.
Nicholson said the northbound bus hit the tractor-trailer almostheadon in the southbound lane on the narrow, twisting highway at5:50 a.m. EDT.
There were five children on the bus. Three were killed, one wasinjured, and one escaped unharmed.
The bus driver was identified as FRANK FLICK of Roanoke. BOBBYG. GARRISON of Gadsden, Ala., was driving the truck.
Fourteen persons were dead on arrival at Morristown - HamblenHospital, located about 10 miles south of the accident scene. Eightothers were admitted to the Morristown hospital, three were takento St. Mary's hospital in Knoxville, and one was taken toKingsport. NIGHTMARE AT BEAN STATION.
To MRS. THEA JACKSON of Mobile, Ala., one of 15 survivors ofSaturday's bus-truck collision, it was a "nightmare."
To Grainger County Rescue Squad member Jesse Atkins it was"terrible, terrible ... I don't understand how anybody got outalive."
"The people were torn all to pieces," said rescue crewman AllenFarmer of Morristown. "There were bodies all over the road."
MRS. JACKSON, who was entoute to Beckley, W. Va., where herdaughter is hospitalized with pneumonia, said she was asleep whenthe crash occurred and was awakened by a rap on the head. She saidshe heard a baby crying, the bus motor still running .. and then itwas "panic."
MRS. JACKSON suvvered a cut leg in the accident, said that aftershe was jolted awake she heard someone saying, "Turn off themotor."
"My first thought was of the emergency door and I pulled up onthe handle. I don't remember how I got out of the bus. It seemslike I must have been in there for two hours, but I found myselfoutside the bus and I was standing in the rain."
"It sounded like a case of dynamite going off," said JESSECOFFEY, 27, a welder who was in bed when the collision occurredoutside his Bean Station home. "I jerked the curtain back and sawthe truck sliding down the highway. The bus was just sitting there,torn all to pieces."
COFFEY said he rushed to the bus and began pulling victims fromthe rubble. "I heard a baby crying. Some guy was hollering, 'helpme! help me!'"
"The motor of the bus was still running and we cut if off forfear the bus would catch fire. There was no way to tell how manypeople there were on the bus because they were torn up so bad," hesaid.
COFFEY said there were several children aboard.
"We got two out that were alive and we found one in the back ofthe bus that was already dead."
Rescue Squads from surrounding towns used crowbars, air hammers,and acetylene torches to tear away the wreckage so the victimscould be removed.
"I crawled into the wreckage and one woman was standing up --completely surrounded by metal," said one rescue worker. "I lookeddown and saw her toe wiggling and saw that she was still alive. Itseemed like it took forever to get her out."
"The bus was split wide open and people were lying everywhere.Most of the dead were taken from the upper deck of the bus," saidState Trooper David Burke of Morristown, first officer to reach thescene.
Although it had been raining throughout the East Tennessee area,the rains did not reach Bean Station until shortly after theaccident.
"The road was bone dry at the time," said Burke. He added thatthere were no skid marks. A PARTIAL LIST OF PASSENGERS.
Authorities identified the following persons as being amongthose killed in the Bean Station bus wreck:
BOBBY G. GARRISON, driver of the tractor trailer truck, fromGadsden, Ala.
FRANK FLICK, the bus driver, Roanoke, Va.
ARTHUR B. LAYTHE, 50, Webster, Mass.
DUANE HALE BAIRD, 31, White Pine, Tenn.
WANDA CAMPBELL, 26, Kingsport.
MRS. MAVIS FLETCHER, 55, Chicago, Ind. (mother of WANDACAMPBELL).
MARY DUNBAR, no age, Forsythe, Ga.
CLARA HARRIS, no age, Collinsville, Ala.
Efforts were still being made late Saturday to identify threeother adults and three children killed in the accident.
Persons injured included:
ISABELL TYREE, Philadelphia, Pa.
NORMAN LEVINE, Virginia Beach, Va.
DOT BRYANT, Memphis, Tenn.
WILLIAM BRYANT, Memphis, Tenn.
HAROLD KYLE, Rossville, Ga.
JOHN D. GIKAS, Brooklyn, N.Y.
DENNIS J. CARPENTER, address unknown.
VINCENT DURHAM, Norfolk, Va.
DON BOSWELL, Kingsport.
LORNA MERRILL, Whitefield, N.H.
KENNETH EUGENE BENTLEY, Ann Arbor, Mich.
ELLEN DELANEY, Kingsport.
Those on the bus who were not injured in the wreck were:
JOSHUA JOHNSON, Norfolk, Va.
THEA JACKSON, Mobile, Ala.
The unidentified five-month-old daughter of CECIL and MARYDUNBAR, of Forsythe, Ga. The mother was killed in the accident.Kingsport Times - News Tennessee 1972-05-14
