Published: June 18, 2009 11:21 pm      

Bus accident memories remain fresh for many

Filmmaker nears completion

Prestonsburg — The television footage of the tragedy seems to be lost forever, although memories of a 1958 school bus accident that claimed the lives of 27 children in Floyd County remain guarded for many.

Documentary filmmaker Michael Crisp, who is nearing completion of his film, “The Very Worst Thing,” has gathered hundreds of images, several minutes of recorded radio broadcasts from the riverbank and many interviews with those whose lives were forever changed that February morning, including one survivor of the bus accident.

Practically the only thing slowing the film’s completion, Crisp said, is the continuing discovery of additional people with compelling connections to the fateful accident.

“We are so close to a finish, but we keep hearing from people with significant ties to it,” Crisp said this week, explaining his camera will make its last trip to Prestonsburg on June 30. If there are others out there with close connections to the crash who are willing to talk about it, Crisp hopes to speak with them before his filming is completed.

Crisp said he knew relatively few facts about the bus wreck when he and partners Andrew Moore and Scott McBrayer started the project, although he has since developed a comprehensive timeline of the accident that has revealed many interesting details.

Tommy Wells, 67, was a sophomore during the final year of classes at the old Auxier High School when classes were dismissed following news of the accident. While he didn’t know any of the children who perished, Wells said his wife’s brother, John, was supposed to have been a passenger on the ill-fated bus but overslept that morning.

“I can still recall it was a terrible time, it really was,” Wells said. “They found the last child just below where we lived, in the river, there at Auxier.”

Wells also remembers the effort to pull the bus from the frigid waters of the Big Sandy River using lines attached to three bulldozers. When the bus emerged from the water with the rear door open, Wells said he saw something he can never forget.

“I can see that one boy in the back door,” he said, describing the young man’s work boots and the probability his body helped prevent others from being swept downstream.

His wife, Jackie Crum Wells, said the bus struck a car owned by her sister or her father as it rolled from the road toward the river. Her father, Joe Crum, had parked the family’s navy blue 1954 Ford and offered his help to the man who was driving a wrecker truck that was also struck by the bus. The family had to leave yellow paint from the bus on the dark blue car until after it was determined her father was not at fault in the accident, Mrs. Wells said.

“Nearly all the children on the bus were my cousins,” she said. “It was a horrible time in my life, losing so many friends. I was only 11 years old when it happened and at times it seems as only a week ago. Oh, the funerals were horrible.”

During the 27 funerals that followed the accident, she said preachers made a point to talk about “the empty bed and the empty chair at the table,” making the mourning even harsher.

“Those preachers up there just went on and on and on at the funerals. It would just tear people apart,” she recalled.

Mrs. Wells said she especially remembers sisters Joyce and Sherry Matney, who perished on the bus. Sherry “had the prettiest red hair,” she said.

A haunting memory, Mrs. Wells said she and Matney often played the game “Sorry” together, a game she now plays with her own grandchildren. Mrs. Wells said she can’t forget sneaking her gamepiece forward a few extra spaces once while they were playing, and will always bear the burden of a memory of cheating against her friend.

The documentary “The Very Worst Thing,” is expected to debut at an undetermined film festival in September, Crisp said, explaining future distribution of the film has not been determined.

For more information, visit www.theveryworstthing.com or call Crisp at (859) 509-0494.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.