Waterloo, Nebraska, Public School, School Bus and Union Pacific Railroad Company Freight Train Accident

What Happened

At 8:10 A.M. on October 2, 1967, a school bus carrying 13 children to school, traveling east on County Road 29, near Waterloo, Nebraska, was driven across an unprotected highway grade crossing and was struck by a westbound Union Pacific Railroad freight train traveling at 56 m.p.h. The locomotive struck and held the right rear quarter of the bus dragging it backward, and then deflected it into a communications pole. The rear of the bus body was disintegrated. Four of the children on the bus were killed and the other nine injured. There were no other fatalities or injuries in the accident.

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