A Brief History
On May 14, 1988, Larry Mahoney, a convicted drunk driver, was driving on I-71 near Carrolton, Kentucky, a route to a cruel fate for 27 people riding in a church bus. Mahoney had a prior DUI conviction and was sailing along in the wrong direction with a blood alcohol content of .24%, more than double Kentucky’s legal limit at the time.
Digging Deeper
The pick up truck driven by the drunk Mahoney struck the 1977 Ford/Superior former school bus nearly head on at a closing speed of over 100 mph, driving suspension components into the gas tank of the gasoline powered bus. The leaking fuel ignited during the wreck, and the attempts by the driver to put out the flames failed.
The bus, carrying 67 church members (mostly high school students), had unfortunately been built only 9 days before new safety regulations would have mandated a protected gas tank and increased emergency exits. As it was, damage and debris blocked the front door, leaving only the rear exit available for the panicked group to leave the burning vehicle.
The resulting human jam at the rear of the bus in the narrow space between the back seats made it impossible for passengers to get out. Luckily, some citizens had stopped and helped forcibly pull out some passengers until roaring flames prevented any further rescue. Of the 67 people aboard, death claimed 27, tied for the second highest death toll in US bus disaster history (the record is 29 killed). All but 6 of the remaining people aboard the ill fated bus were injured as well. A passenger car that was also struck by the pick up truck resulted in no further injuries to its occupants.
Incredibly, Mahoney had not been killed in the wreck, waking up the next day in a hospital with no recollection of the accident. Convicted of 27 counts of manslaughter and DUI, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, of which he served 10 years before release.
Obviously the crash was caused by Mahoney driving the wrong way on the interstate route, almost assuredly due to his drunken state, and he rightfully deserves punishment for those offenses. Would 27 people have died if the bus had even rudimentary safety features allowing easier exit after an accident? Would the fire have started at all had the gas tank protection (seemingly common sense) that was later mandated by law been built into the bus in the first place?
It certainly seems that this tragedy would have been far less terrible had Ford and Superior (Ford made the frame, engine, and chassis, Superior made the bus body) paid the least attention to safety whether mandated or not. Obviously, in the absence of government safety regulations manufacturers just cannot be counted on to make safe products. At the time of the incident, school buses used for other purposes (such as church bus) did not require updated safety measures. Today, school buses have many more emergency exit opportunities.
Much has been debated about school bus safety and design, as well as the effects of driving under the influence of alcohol and the effectiveness or lack thereof of the laws and programs meant to control drunk driving. The standard for “legal limit” of alcohol has evolved to .08% Blood Alcohol Content (BAC), but that would have had no effect on this tragedy. Apparently prior convictions do not seem to stop tragedies, either.
Question for students (and subscribers): What is the answer or answers to drunk driving wrecks? Share your opinions in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lerner, Barron H. One for the Road: Drunk Driving since 1900. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
