To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Tennessee Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Tennessee, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 8/31/19 • Approved: 9/2/19 • Last Updated: 9/5/19 • R184824-G0-S3
Spring City School Bus/Train Accident Memorial 22 August 22, 1955
Spring City Depot Station
This memorial was erected on the 50th Anniversary of the tragic accident that claimed the lives of 11 children and injured dozens. At 3 pm on the afternoon of August 22, 1955 a school bus loaded with children on their way home from school crossed in the path of a southbound freight train at the south crossing in Spring City Tennessee.
Sadly 11 children died in the accident, and left many injured. the scene was heartbreaking. Tennessee Gov Frank Clement came to the scene and ordered a full investigation. Shortly afterward the mothers of the victims traveled to the Capital and asked the Gov. and law makers to make it a law that all school buses stop at all railroad crossings. The law was passed and within a couple of years all 50 states adopted the same law, thus the "STOP LOOK AND LISTEN" was started, and even though there is no way of knowing how many children's lives have been saved by this new law, it is a great memorial to these 11 little children who lost their lives in Spring City that August afternoon.
Those that died:
Mary Elizabeth Ball
Everett Edwards Jr.
Rose Mary Gideon
James Leon Hackler
Edward Muriel Hartbarger
Wallace Sanders Hartbarger
Charlotte Ann Marshall
Sherry Diane Mincy
Jerry Mincy
Ricky Phillips
Max Phillips
*Photo & bio courtesy of Dean Wilson
Contributed on 8/31/19
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 184824