Collinsburg tragedy still a vivid memory 67 years later
By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com
Sept. 17, 1952, is a date that’s etched into the memories of Collinsburg residents, even if they weren’t born yet.
That’s the day a Rostraver Township school bus was struck by a P&LE train at the crossing at German Street and Collinsburg Road. The site is now along the Yough River Trail, and the train tracks are long gone.
The Rostraver Township Historical Society dedicated a plaque along the trail Tuesday commemorating the crash and the four young lives lost that day. Many in attendance vividly recalled the horrifying scene that early morning 67 years ago.
“It was terrible, terrible,” recalled Marie Yex, who was a 20-year-old mother with a young baby at the time. She lived diagonally across Collinsburg Road from the crash site.
“When I looked out, the bottom of the bus was here and the top was down there,” Yex said, pointing down the street. “It was torn apart. A girl came to the door all bloody and with no shoes on and she said to call an ambulance.”
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