29 Trees Are Reminder of Worst School Bus Tragedy

The dead are not forgotten.

Twenty-nine trees, planted in a Yuba City High School garden so the sounds of singing teen-agers drift among the branches, still stand as a memorial to the choir students and popular music teacher killed 12 years ago.

In the farming community about 150 miles north of San Francisco, scholarships are still given in the names of the students who died, and music pupils still practice on instruments purchased with donations made in their names.

Twenty-two students survived the May 21, 1976, accident in which the 25-year-old bus lost its brakes and plunged off a freeway bridge exit in Martinez, but terrifying memories of people in the three small towns affected remain. The bus accident is believed to be the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.

“Still to this day, I never come off that bridge without thinking about it,” said Contra Costa County Supervisor Nancy Fahden, who represents the Martinez area, about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco.

“That was something that touched everybody,” added Fahden. “Those who died were too young, too enthusiastic, too positive about life for something as tragic as that to have happened to them. No one here has ever fully gotten over what happened.”