At the time it was Britain’s deadliest traffic accident, made all the worse by the fact that the victims were all young boys aged nine to thirteen. A dark night, a group of Sea Cadets marching in the road and a bus being driven with no headlights were the ingredients for this preventable tragedy…..
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Ironically, the bus driver was going to attend a dinner and be awarded a medal for clean driving through his career. Only to be thwarted the day before by mowing down dozens of children .
So sad they all would have been in their 70 to late 90 I was born in 1952
I live in Scotland where I was born in 1954
and this is the first i have heard of this Tragedy..so sad to hear of so many young
lives lost..may they rest in peace..and I feel that the burden of the guilt suffered by the driver, was indeed greater than any
imprisonment that the court could have imposed.
Omg Its bulgy
So it's definitely the Lieutenants fault for walking the boys in the road. If anything the Lieutenant should've been on trial too. Man it doesn't matter what era it is the Military always get away with it.
I commend you, Raven, for covering the tragedy in such a considerate and thoughtful way. I live about 1.5 miles as the crow flies from the scene and I remember my Mum telling me about 'the boys who were killed down there' when we were standing at the top of Dock Rd when I was about 6 years old. That was in the mid 60s. Those poor kids have not been forgotten in the Medway Towns…
Given all the circumstances I feel so sorry for the driver. He was practically a scapegoat in the days when the word of a Naval Officer carried more weight and went largely unquestioned. I've been down that road many times by bus and for the Officer in Chargec to suggest the bus was doing 45mph is laughable – even in the technologically advanced buses we have today. The 20mph claimed by the driver is much more realistic.
I dread to think how he suffered mentally for the rest of his life.
RIP lads…. Per Mare Per Terram…. 🙏
THATS WHAT HAPPENS ..WHEN YOU DO THE SAME THING EVERY DAY….SAME ROUTE…THEM DAYS THERE WAS HARDLY ANY TRAFFIC LET ALONE CADETS MARCHING DOWN THE STREET?….I LOVE THE GUTS OF THOSE CADETS THAT HELPED THE BUS DRIVER…PURE COMMANDO…ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN …AND ID SAY ..THEY WENT ON TO BE ROYAL MARINES…!!!!!
Why on earth were they not facing oncoming traffic? To have their backs to the traffic was just crazy, also three abreast!!! TRAGIC!! 🥲
How transparent is this? What kind of clown marches children, three abreast IN THE ROAD AND IN THE DARK!!!?? And the driver of the bus cops the blame!!!??
The Royal Navy was a powerful force of influence in Chatham at that time, well connected with local dignitaries and the Judiciary.
I shall leave the reader to work out the rest
Thank you for your compassionate narration. RIP boys.
An excellent video about a heartbreaking tragedy. As portrayed, there were a number of contributory factors, but no single factor caused the accident. Because that is what it was – a horrendous accident as a result of the stacking of poor judgement (marching in the road, possible inappropriate speed for the conditions), poor maintenance (the failed street light), and prevailing culture (driving on sidelights after dark). The court's penalty for the driver shows they recognised this, as did the gift from the survivors.
How much more of an informed outlook than today's view that 'Anything that goes wrong MUST be some single person's fault', leading to endless witch hunting and protracted legal battles and harrassment; which in turn prevents everyone coming to terms with bereavement. At the end of the day, sometimes there are genuine *accidents*.
I agree with the judges comments about the driver but, on balance, Lieutenant Carter should have faced similar punishment for he was just as culpable.
I'd actually never heard of this dreadful incident before. Thank you for this.
bus not bos
Just stumbled across this while searching for something else. Beyond horrific.
If he was that bothered he would have taken his own life he drove too fast and didn't have headlights on death by dangerous driving children should have had full military honours
So sad to hear about this, I'm a UK citizen and have never heard this heartbreaking story. The true tragedy is it so easily could have been avoided but I guess that's very easily said with hindsight.
I found this emotionally moving!
I know this area very well.
Thank you!
I didn't know about this terrible tragedy
Makes no sense. The kids are on the pavement, he's on the road… ?
Sad, very sad, and totally avoidable. My heart goes out to the bus driver and all the families of the kids who perished.
I'm curious to know what became of the Lieutenant. Must say, it shocks me to learn that it was common practice for buses to drive around at night with their headlights off.
To send the Bus Driver to The Old Bailey was a disgrace, he didnt see them, street lights then where very dim, and he wasnt supposed to be looking for unsupervised children walking in the road, and by the way, unless you are over 60, you wont recall smog and fog, which is hardly ever seen nowadays.
I remember, in the 60s being on a bus or in my fathers car, and the smog descended like a cloak, you couldnt see more than 3 feet in front of you, drivers of buses and cars would have their window down, and would have their heads out, trying to listen to any sounds, the only thing I can recall was just being able to see the tail lights, thats when you knew something was less than 6 foot away.
I cant imagine how Traumatised all involved were at the time, Driver, Conductor and those who helped, they all must have cried for months.
Nobody was to blame.
There head stones all sit in woodlands cemetery with all the fallen from the first second world war
While you can't judge people from 73 years by today's standards if this had occurred today it would have been seen as insane to march children in the road at all in that way whether they had lights and high vis vests or not whatever the conditions dark or daylight just something that should not be done unless the road was closed for that purpose
O condutor será sempre o culpado. Mesmo sem culpa.
É sempre o elo mais fraco de qualquer corrente de factos que levam ao acidente.
Quando, qualquer pessoa de bom senso vê que a responsabilidade é de que organizou a marcha.
Atitudes baixas e covardes de quem decide, nada mais.
Driving on a dark, foggy night with NO headlights on?
Unbelievable. Incomprehensible.
If he had his headlights on then this tragedy would never have happened.
Poor, poor children. Marching at night without warning lamps is utter stupidity and makes Carter equally culpable. he was equally if not more culpable IMO.. As for 30-45mph on one of those buses, it's for the fairies.
Did the bus not have it's head lights on?, surely if the had of bn turned on, the bus driver, would definitely have seen them, although the cadets SHLD have had a light on the outside row, signifying exactly where they were, and how far they extended both out into the road AND how far along the road, they extended,
A COMEDY OF NOT FUNNY ERRORS, just plan STUPIDITY AND LACK OF COMMON SENSE AND LAZINESS
Arrest the driver.
At 7:20 you can clearly see 3 fully grown adults with plenty of room to walk 3 abreast on the pavement with room to spare
The bus driver, John William George Samson, died in 1972, just 21 years after the tragedy, aged 78.
"Flashlights". "Gotten".
if it was foggy there is no way anyone should be in the road and if it was foggy why was the bus going so fast. surely the Police can find out if it was Fog or not. i think it's the old boys network protecting the lieutenant and lets go for the bus driver. all sorted out in the Masonic lodge no doubt. Rest in Peace the lads who died
So sad terrible thing to happen
Drivers worst nightmare , And the impact and heartache goes beyond belief
Terrible.
as a sea cadet in the 1960s, we used to march on the road in three columns the few cars would wait behind us but always in daylight I think the highway code when read it had said a marching column had to have lights at night
rip.
After only 3 minutes I can tell the narrator is heavily biased in favour of the incompetent bus driver that mowed down and killed the young boys .
The cadets were walking on the wrong side of the road. When walking in the road. You walk on the facing traffic. So traffic can be seen head on. Highway Code.
So sad.
Where are you??…it's been a month since you posted a video.
Hey raven’s eye! Could you maybe make a video about the mass shooting in Norway in 2011?
The bloke in charge marched 'em in the road at night, what could possibly go wrong?
What's happened to you Raven's Eye? Hope all is well.