What caused the Carrollton bus crash?
The Carrollton bus collision occurred on May 14, 1988, on Interstate 71 in unincorporated Carroll County, Kentucky. The collision involved a former school bus in use by a church youth group and a pickup truck driven by an alcohol-impaired driver. The head-on collision was the deadliest incident involving drunk driving and the third-deadliest bus crash in U.S. history. Of the 67 people on the bus (counting the driver), there were 27 fatalities in the crash, the same number as the 1958 Prestonsburg bus disaster, and behind the 1976 Yuba City bus disaster (29) and 1963 Chualar bus crash (32).
In the aftermath of the disaster, several family members of victims became active leaders of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and one—Karolyn Nunnallee—became national president of the organization. The standards for both operation and equipment for school buses and similar buses were improved in Kentucky and many other states. These include an increased number of emergency exits, higher standards for structural integrity, and the use of less volatile diesel fuel. On Interstate 71, the crash site is marked with a highway sign erected by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Memorial items such as crosses and flower arrangements are regularly placed at the site by families and friends.
On May 14, 1988, a youth group mostly consisting of teenagers who attended North Hardin High School, James T. Alton Middle School, Radcliff Middle School and four adults from Assembly of God church in Radcliff, Kentucky, boarded their church bus and headed to Kings Island theme park in Mason, Ohio, about 170 miles (270 km) from Radcliff. The group included church members and their invited guests. As everyone arrived early that Saturday morning, the number of those wanting to go on the trip had grown to more than originally anticipated. The church’s principal pastor, who did not join the trip, restricted the ridership to the legal limit of 66 persons plus the driver.
The bus involved in the crash was a former school bus, configured with a bus body mated to a medium-duty truck chassis and frame. The 1977 model-year Ford B700 chassis was mated to a Superior school bus body. The vehicle was designed with a capacity of 66 passengers and a driver, including 11 rows of 39-inch wide seats, separated by a 12-inch central aisle.
Ford Motor Company manufactured the B700 chassis at its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Kentucky; it was then shipped to Superior Coach Company of Lima, Ohio. A company owned by industrial conglomerate Sheller-Globe Corporation, Superior manufactured the school bus body that was installed on the Ford B700 chassis. The vehicle was certified as a “school bus” with an effective build date of March 23, 1977, the date associated with the construction of the Ford chassis (as required by federal regulations).
What was the worst bus crash in history?
If you take public transportation to work, school, or your holiday travels, you expect a safe journey. The person driving your bus should be trained and in possession of a commercial driver’s license. The vehicle itself should be well-maintained and fit for service. A lack in any of these areas can lead to catastrophe. If you have been hurt, then you have a right to compensation. You should contact a Los Angeles personal injury attorney to help you build a case.
Deadly bus crashes are rare, which is why we rarely hear of one. But when they do happen, they tend to shock the conscience of the public because of the lives lost. Here are some of the most horrific collisions in modern American history:
On May 10, 1999, Mother’s Day, a charter bus carrying forty-six people was on its way from New Orleans to a Mississippi casino. At some point the vehicle rolled over three lanes of traffic, smashed through a guardrail, went off the road, and crashed into an embankment.
The investigation into the crash revealed that the driver was high on Marijuana and drowsy from Benadryl. There were no serious consequences for the company aside from a hefty fine.
On May 14th of this year, twenty-seven people were killed on a church bus near Carrollton, Kentucky. A Toyota pick-up truck driven by a person with a blood alcohol count of .21, double the legal limit at the time, causing a head-on collision. The crash punctured a hole in the fuel tank and a subsequent spark sent the bus up in flames.
The driver was tried, convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to 16 years in prison. The only other actions taken were reforms to make school buses safer, including the installation of multiple emergency exits and flame-retardant seats and floor coverings.
Twenty-seven people were killed on the 28th of February of this year. Forty-eight school kids were on board when it hit the back of a wrecker on U.S. Highway 23, which sent it over an embankment and into a river. The accident was a result neither of poor or un-sober driving nor of failed equipment. It occurred because the wrecker suddenly and unexpectedly slowed, and the bus driver had few good choices to avoid an accident.
This tragedy was the result of equipment failure. The brakes did not work when the bus driver attempted to slow the vehicle in order to make a sharp turn. The driver turned frantically, and tipped over the rail landing, sending 29 people to their deaths.
This is the deadliest bus crash in modern American history. It occurred outside of Chualar in Salinas Valley, California. A makeshift bus was carrying 53 farm workers, who were brought in to harvest crops, when the driver drove across a train track—right in the path of an approaching train. Thirty-two people were killed.
At the time, there were no crossing gates or warning lights. A subsequent investigation revealed that the driver was at fault. He apparently did not notice the oncoming train.
Where was the fatal bus crash in Kentucky?
The collision and plunge into Big Sandy River involving a school bus near Prestonsburg, Kentucky, on February 28, 1958, resulted in the deaths of 26 students and the bus’s driver. It was the third-deadliest bus crash in United States history, tied for fatalities with the Carrollton, Kentucky bus collision in 1988. The only deadlier crashes were a 1963 bus-train crash in Chualar, California and the 1976 Yuba City bus disaster, which claimed the lives of 29 people.
On a cold and cloudy morning, after a period of heavy rains and thaw, a Floyd County school bus loaded with 48 elementary and high school students bound for school in Prestonsburg, Kentucky struck the rear of a wrecker truck on U.S. Route 23 and fell down an embankment into the swollen waters of the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, where it was swept downstream and submerged.
National Guard and other authorities and agencies responded to the disaster. On March 5, 1958, governor Happy Chandler ordered 500 national guardsmen from 9 different cities to join the effort to find those still missing. The bus was finally located by Navy divers, and removed from the river 53 hours later.
Twenty-two children escaped the bus in the first few minutes as it became fully submerged in the raging flood stage waters and made it safely out of the river. However, 26 other children and the bus driver drowned.
The crash would become the impetus behind the formation of the Floyd County Emergency & Rescue Squad, founded by volunteers on April 27, 1958. To this day, the FCERS remains a 100% volunteer agency, and assists local police departments, volunteer fire departments, and EMS with auto extrication, search and rescue, fireground support, and EMS first response in addition to its original role as the primary water rescue agency for the area.
The 27-person death toll is tied with the Carrollton bus disaster in 1988 for the third highest number of fatalities resulting from a bus crash. Both happened in Kentucky and in each, the victims were all thought to have survived the initial collisions, but were unable to safely evacuate the school-type buses afterwards. After the 1988 crash, Kentucky changed its public school bus equipment requirements to require nine emergency exits. This is the highest number of emergency exits required on school buses by any state or Canadian province.
Several months later, two American recording artists released songs about the crash: The Stanley Brothers, with “No School Bus in Heaven,” and Ralph Bowman, with “The Tragedy of Bus 27.” Neither made the national Billboard Hot 100 charts, but they did receive regional airplay in some parts of the country.
In recent years the accident has been the subject of two documentary films, The Very Worst Thing and A Life of Its Own, and the site of the bus accident has been marked by a sign bearing a dark image of a school bus superimposed with the names of the children and driver that died. There is usually a wreath of plastic fl.
Who survived the Carrollton bus crash?
The Carrollton bus collision occurred on May 14, 1988, on Interstate 71 in unincorporated Carroll County, Kentucky. The collision involved a former school bus in use by a church youth group and a pickup truck driven by an alcohol-impaired driver. The head-on collision was the deadliest incident involving drunk driving and the third-deadliest bus crash in U.S. history. Of the 67 people on the bus (counting the driver), there were 27 fatalities in the crash, the same number as the 1958 Prestonsburg bus disaster, and behind the 1976 Yuba City bus disaster (29) and 1963 Chualar bus crash (32).
In the aftermath of the disaster, several family members of victims became active leaders of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and one—Karolyn Nunnallee—became national president of the organization. The standards for both operation and equipment for school buses and similar buses were improved in Kentucky and many other states. These include an increased number of emergency exits, higher standards for structural integrity, and the use of less volatile diesel fuel. On Interstate 71, the crash site is marked with a highway sign erected by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Memorial items such as crosses and flower arrangements are regularly placed at the site by families and friends.
On May 14, 1988, a youth group mostly consisting of teenagers who attended North Hardin High School, James T. Alton Middle School, Radcliff Middle School and four adults from Assembly of God church in Radcliff, Kentucky, boarded their church bus and headed to Kings Island theme park in Mason, Ohio, about 170 miles (270 km) from Radcliff. The group included church members and their invited guests. As everyone arrived early that Saturday morning, the number of those wanting to go on the trip had grown to more than originally anticipated. The church’s principal pastor, who did not join the trip, restricted the ridership to the legal limit of 66 persons plus the driver.
The bus involved in the crash was a former school bus, configured with a bus body mated to a medium-duty truck chassis and frame. The 1977 model-year Ford B700 chassis was mated to a Superior school bus body. The vehicle was designed with a capacity of 66 passengers and a driver, including 11 rows of 39-inch wide seats, separated by a 12-inch central aisle.
Ford Motor Company manufactured the B700 chassis at its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Kentucky; it was then shipped to Superior Coach Company of Lima, Ohio. A company owned by industrial conglomerate Sheller-Globe Corporation, Superior manufactured the school bus body that was installed on the Ford B700 chassis. The vehicle was certified as a “school bus” with an effective build date of March 23, 1977, the date associated with the construction of the Ford chassis (as required by federal regulations).
What was the deadliest bus crash in history?
When a disaster takes multiple lives, the pain of the loss transcends the families of the victims and impacts the community and even the nation. An airplane falls from the sky, a train derails into an icy river or a bus rolls over and catches fire. When these tragedies happen, everyone feels the loss and the devastation to the families and friends of those who perished.
As a society, we try to make sense of the events and take steps to avoid them happening again. This article will look at the five most deadly bus crashes and explore their impact on the community and the nation.
On Mother’s Day, May 10, 1999, forty-six people boarded a charter bus from New Orleans to a Mississippi casino resort to spend a few days gambling and enjoying the entertainment the casino had to offer. It turned out that the greatest gamble was getting on the bus with a driver high on marijuana.
The driver later told investigators that a car had cut him off and he swerved to avoid hitting it. After the investigation, officials said that they couldn’t corroborate the claim of a driver cutting him off, but the bus did suddenly veer across three lanes narrowly missing three vehicles before smashing into a guardrail and then off the road. From there it slid another 50 yards through a chain-link fence before slamming into an embankment.
The driver should never have been behind the wheel. Not only was he high on marijuana and dizzy from Benadryl, but he had only been out of the hospital just eight hours after being admitted for congestive heart failure and malfunctioning kidneys. His employer said that they weren’t aware of his recent hospitalization and that they had never had any problems with the driver.
However, a background check would have revealed that the driver had been fired from two other bus driving jobs for operating a bus while on drugs.
Unfortunately, aside from a lot of finger pointing, not much was accomplished other than scathing reports by safety agencies and a slew of court cases. The National Transportation Highway Safety Administration issued a report blasting the bus company for failing to monitor their driver’s health conditions and screen for drug use. However, after a fine, there was no serious repercussions for the company.
A new Orleans’s civil court judge ruled that the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development carried half of the blame because the guardrails were not adequately maintained. Instead of agreeing to make changes, the department appealed the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which agreed with the judge that the department was 50 percent liable. No new programs to strengthen guard rails came from the incident.
A few minutes before midnight on May 14, 27 people—24 children, 3 adults—died on a church bus near Carrollton, Kentucky, heading home from Kings Island, an amusement park in Mason, Ohio. It was a day of rides, cotton candy and carnival games, but it ended in the worst drunk driving accidents and the fourth deadliest bus crash in U.S. history.
What happened on May 14, 1988?
Dozens of people were killed on May 14, 1988, in the deadliest drunken driving crash in U.S. history. It is arguably the worst drunk driving accident in history. Police say Larry Mahoney’s blood alcohol content was nearly 2.5 times the legal limit when his pickup plowed head on into a church bus. The death toll would reach 27, 24 of whom were children.
An old school bus filled with children from the Ratcliffe First Assembly of God church was returning home from a trip to Kings Island. The driver of the pickup truck, a drunk driver by the name of Larry Mahoney, was going the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky. Police say Larry Mahoney’s blood alcohol content was nearly 2.5 times the legal limit when his pickup plowed head on into the church bus.
The impact jammed the bus’s front exit closed and ruptured the fuel tank. That is just the the flames came. People were crawling in their seats and people were just getting run over. Little kids were getting run over and toward the back, crawled over everything in my way, bodies seats and at the rear exit, it was completely packed with bodies and I was trying to get out and finally when it cleared, I got climbed over a seat and the seat was so hot, it melted my right palm. When they pulled me out, I was still on fire. My thought was, I’m the only one who made it. You know, that’s a bad feeling. Several people escaped through the back door and windows. Nearly a dozen others suffered burns that will scar them for life. But 27 people died in this bus. 24 children and three adults.
It is arguably the worst drunk driving accident in history. “We the jury find the defendant Larry Wayne Mahoney guilty of manslaughter in the second degree.” Mahoney was sent to prison for manslaughter, assault, and wanton endangerment. Some saw the jail sentence of only 16 years as insufficient for the man responsible for 27 deaths and a lifetime of tragic memories for the victims’ family and friends.
“What happened to us is horrible and we can’t take it away. We can only become bitter or we can become better after the Carroll County crash,” said Larry Fair, Shannon’s father. “Decided changes must be made because of my loss, my grief, my experiences, the least that can happen is something to be improved.” So he went to Frankfurt and for years lobbied to get laws changed.
All school buses must meet a set of federal regulations, but states can make the standards stricter as they see fit. The average school bus specification probably contains around 45 to 50 pages, the Kentucky specification, more than 120 page school bus safety has drastically improved in the Commonwealth. Kentucky’s requirements go above and beyond the federal minimum, creating an even safer environment for children.