School Bus Wreck Sparks Alarm Near White Bluffs
A morning school bus run ended in a collision with a car near the old pump house, resulting in vehicle destruction but miraculously few injuries.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The school bus driven by W. J. Jenkins, loaded with children on its way to the grade school this Friday morning, met Wright Wiehl in his car in a head-on collision near the old pump house corner. The front wheels were torn from under the bus and it tipped over on its side and the car was badly demolished. Fortunately, none of the school children were hurt beyond a few minor bruises and a bad scare. Wright received a bad scalp wound but Dr. Spaulding, who came up from Kennewick, said after an examination that he found no broken bones or other serious injuries. He found that Mr. Jenkins had received no injuries beyond a good shaking up, which he said would probably make him lame and sore for a few days.
“The front wheels were torn from under the bus and it tipped over on its side and the car was badly demolished.”
Accidents involving rural school transport were common in the early motor age, often serving as a grim reminder of the need for improved road safety and regulation in the burgeoning Columbia Basin. The 'old pump house corner' marks a landscape long since altered by industrial development and irrigation shifts.
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