23 Still Missing

*23 Still Missing After Bus Wrecks Off Route 1 - - May 1981*

Twenty-three people are still missing with several others confirmed dead after a charter bus carrying passengers back to Salem from Boston crashed on U.S. Route 1 northbound near the Lynn Wood Reservation last May according to Governor Edward J. King on Tuesday.

Multiple people were ejected from the bus, a few being killed as the vehicle rolled down an embankment crushing those beneath it, Massachusetts State Police James O’Callaghan told reporters.

“But, as we’re progressing through this, we’re realizing more and more people who were on the bus are now missing.” O ‘Callaghan said at the time. King later confirmed the count of four dead and twenty-three missing.

Police said no known witnesses saw the charter bus, which is believed to have been carrying 27 passengers, including the driver, veered over the right shoulder, lost control and tumble dozens of feet down and over a drainage trench into a farm field.

“At this time, we have multiple fatalities and over twenty missing persons who seemingly vanished without a trace.”

Most people didn’t have seatbelts on, O’Callaghan said. The bus was going at “full speed” but did not hit any other vehicles.”

The only information that could be gathered from a team of dayworkers employed at local farm, was, that at roughly the time of the accident, many claimed to have heard a deafening screech tear across the night sky echoing through the fields as far as 1.5 miles away. Those hearing the sound further claimed to have seen something resembling a comet race through the sky at the time but, no independent astrological data corroborated any such event and the information was slow to materialize insomuch as the workers were largely a mix of Papa New Guinean, Malagasy and Voormis descent, with translation services being slow and difficult to come by.

The only other local resident near the long stretch of mostly desolate highway in the region who could be questioned was Earl Grimsby of Grimsby’s Towing. Though Grimsby could not explain his presence anywhere else that night and was initially reluctant to answer any reporters’ questions, Grimsby was finally on record as stating, “I didn’t hear nothing! You got that?”

Meanwhile, Senator Kennedy said last Friday afternoon that National Transportation Safety had requested federal assistance and, as a result, the FBI would now be assigned to the investigation and the scene of the crash.

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