Thursday marks 50 years since deadly Congers school bus crash in Clarkstown
CLARKSTOWN, N.Y. -- Thursday marks 50 years since the deadly Congers bus crash in Clarkstown, New York.
A heartfelt ceremony commemorated one of the worst days in Rockland County history. Many of those in attendance were just teenagers at the time.
"It seems like yesterday sometimes," one man said.
On March 24, 1972, Nyack School Bus 596 was rushing across train tracks when it was struck by a freight train. Five students were killed and 40 more injured. It was a day of heartbreak.
It was also a day of heroism by Joan Fitzgerald and many others.
"Papers flying, my daughter remembers the papers flying," she told CBS2's Tony Aiello.
The Fitzgerald family lived on Third Street in Congers, just steps from the train tracks.
"Well, I went out there to help, of course, after I called the police," she said.
Fitzgerald, a mother of seven, ran to help injured students on the bus.
"Pull them to safety and evaluate their injuries, make splints out of whatever we could find," she said.
Another neighbor who ran to that nightmarish scene to help the children was a Mrs. Tirico. She spoke with CBS2 50 years ago.
"Then I told my children to get some blankets from the house here, and I ran down with the blankets, and there were two of the neighbors down there. We started covering up these kids," she said at the time.
"People were driving through our backyard to get there, taking cars to pick up the kids and bring them to the hospital because there wasn't enough ambulances," John Fitzgerald said Thursday.
Nyack hospital teams performed 17 lifesaving surgeries in four hours.
William Thomsen survived with serious injuries. The day changed his life in multiple ways.
"Most importantly, my wife, Kim, who came to help me 50 years ago as a volunteer Candy Striper that day," he said.
The crash also inspired big improvements in school bus safety.
"Shockingly, it was determined that school buses were far flimsier than typical passenger buses used by the public at the time," Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann said.
Fifty years later, buses and railroad crossings are safer, and five young lives have not been forgotten.
