Railroad crossings in Edgewater and New Smyrna Beach reminder of horrific bus-train crash in Valley Cottage, NY

Railroad crossings like this one in greater New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater remind blogger Jeanette DiCara of a deadly school bus-train collision 40 years ago in the little hamlet of Valley Cottage, N.Y.

EDGEWATER -- The bus full of high school band students I was chaperoning grew quiet so suddenly that it was eerie. When I looked up, I saw the bus driver stop just short of the railroad tracks and open the door to listen then looked all around.

Immediately, I understood the reason for complete silence.

These students knew what the protocol was for crossing the railroad while riding a school bus. It became the law after an awful wreck when a train plowed into a school bus four decades ago. Forty years have passed since that tragedy on March 24, 1972, in an area where my family and I lived when I was very young. My father's job moved us away from that little hamlet, Valley Cottage, in Rockland County, N.Y., just six years before the accident.

Recalling Valley Cottage was a pleasant memory of a very pretty and family friendly area. It had an elementary school within walking distance to most of our suburban style homes and New York City was an less than hour away. A likely class trip was a bus ride to Bear Mountain State Park on the norther part of Rockland County. High school students traveled to Nyack High situated near the west bank of the Hudson River.

In New Jersey, my home was next to the elementary school I attended until sixth grade. As a typical decision during the early 1970s, the school board of Hamilton had decided that my section of the township would be bused to the opposite end of Hamilton for sixth grade only.

As I boarded the bus that cold morning in March the driver gave a general warning for every one to take a seat and sit quietly. He told us there was a terrible school bus accident in New York earlier that morning.

I asked if it was in the Clarkstown hamlet of Valley Cottage where I lived with my family up to five years before then. "Rockland County" was all he knew. That sounded familar as I took a breath and held it.

As I sat speechless I wanted to go back to tell my parents, who were still in contact with friends from that town, but our bus was already rolling. I thought of how terrible the crash must have been that we who live in central Jersey heard of it that morning. There were local traffic incidents that made the morning news.

Why was I hearing of this one from another state?

How old were the students? Could this happen to us on the way to school? How safe would we be if our bus were to crash on the way to school I wondered as I heard the bolts rattle and the seats squeak over bumps.

As I stepped safely onto the sidewalk at school I saw my breath and worried that there may be school children hurt and laying out on the cold ground. I imagined it would be the just as chilly or even colder in a place that was a two-hour car ride northeast of my home.

I said a prayer for them silently as I traditionally did when ever I heard of others who were hurt. Walking into my warm classroom I felt oddly lucky to be at school that day.

I said a prayer for them silently as I traditionally did when ever I heard of others who were hurt. Walking into my warm classroom I felt oddly lucky to be at school that day.

Earlier that morning as the school bus with 49 high school students from Valley Cottage approached an intersection with the train tracks, they passed one railroad warning sign and a stop sign which the driver did not heed. Northbound Penn Central freight train crashed into the school bus to the horror of its passengers.

The impact with the freight train ejected many teens instantly. Floor sections came apart and two of these school children slipped through the gaps into the path of the train that pushed the bus 1,116 feet before coming to a halt.

The rear section of the bus was ripped loose and overturned trapping some students. Three high school boys died from injuries that day, and two more boys died within a few weeks. All of the other boys and girls were injured and some lost limbs.

The bus driver was also injured, but the train crew was not. I always felt empathy for the young people involved in that crash and wondered how the survivors and their families overcame such an horrific ordeal. I felt concerned for the small community where my family and I had fond memories. That road is now well marked at the intersection with the train.

Now that I have three daughters who cross the train tracks daily in a yellow bus on their way to high school, I embrace the changes made from the lessons learned from that terrible accident. It is a comfort to see the gates protecting us with red lights flashing and bells sounding as we are often stalled by the freight train that cuts through New Smyrna Beach.

Now that I have three daughters who cross the train tracks daily in a yellow bus on their way to high school, I embrace the changes made from the lessons learned from that terrible accident. It is a comfort to see the gates protecting us with red lights flashing and bells sounding as we are often stalled by the freight train that cuts through New Smyrna Beach.

The adminstrators at the middle and high schools allow late entry without marking students tardy when a train delays the traffic on 10th Street. Out of that small New York town's tragedy, other children have been protected better.

Still, I have concerns when placing their lives in someone else's hands and hope that the bus driver will always choose to make safe decisions.

Some of the recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board after this accident were to request legislation to use federal funds to improve warnings at railroad crossings for roadways that were not federal highways. It called for school bus drivers to be more qualified.

The NTSB also advised studies to be done that focused attention on the impact of people on the bus seats which later became higher and better padded. School buses are now built stronger.

Bus drivers now wait before crossing, listen for a train whistle as an extra precaution. At night I hear the horn haunting our sleepy area of Southeast Volusia as the Florida East Coast freight train rolls through, and I know this warning comes from the hard lessons we have learned from that tragedy 40 years ago. 

Editor's Note: Henry Frederick, editor/publisher of NSBNews.net / Headline Surfer, was a breaking news police and courts reporter for the Rockland Journal News in Werst Nyack, N.Y. from 1989 to 1996. He lived in Nyack, Haverstraw and Stony Point and passed through Valley Cottage near those railroad tracks on a daily basis.