Question submitted to American folklore: I'm tryiny to find a newpaper article on the 1940's crash involving a schoolbus with about 20-40 children aboard. The children's spirits are supposed to help cars acrossed the tracks for safety.

Answer: This story is actually an urban legend originating in San Antonio, though the incident spawning the story happened in Salt Lake City, Utah way back in December of 1938.

According to the urban legend, there was once an accident on the railroad tracks in San Antonio. A school bus full of children stalled on the railroad tracks and was run over by a freight train, killing everyone on the bus. The ghosts of the children are supposed to protect cars that become stalled on the tracks. The invisible children push the car to safety, leaving only tiny handprints on the back of the car to prove that they were there.

More information may be found at: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/hndprint.asp .

A retelling of this story is available at: http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/tx4.html.