Kentucky Responds to Issues Raised by Crash Fatal to 27 : School Bus Tragedy Prompts New Look at Safety

A year ago last Sunday, three ambulance drivers took injured children to hospitals after the deadliest drunk-driving-related traffic accident in U.S. history.

On Mother’s Day, Lannis Garnett, his wife, Gladys, and Mayme Walters were among guests at services marking the first anniversary of the crash that killed 24 children and three adults aboard a church bus and left many of the 40 survivors with severe burns.

“You relive it quite often,” said Garnett, who with his wife operates Owen County Life Squad at Owenton. “If anything, it gets more clear as time goes on.”

The bus burst into flames after colliding with a pickup that police said was being driven on the wrong side of Interstate 71 by a drunk driver.

Town Near Ft. Knox

The crash occurred near Carrollton, about 100 miles northeast of Radcliff, the post town outside Ft. Knox. The driver of the pickup, Larry W. Mahoney, faces trial in November on 27 counts of murder and one count of drunk driving.

At a community memorial service that capped a day of remembrance, a minister said that, “in some ways, today is worse than others” for the injured and families of the dead.

“It’s the first anniversary, combined with Mother’s Day, of all things,” said Rev. David A. Seamands, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore.

The crash also raised questions about school bus safety and treatment of drunk drivers. The acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board called it “one of the most influential highway accidents” the board had ever considered.

Recommendations have been made to get some older buses off the road. The bus involved, a 1977 model, was manufactured before federal regulations on some safety matters took effect, such as protective cages around gas tanks.

Emergency push-out windows have been added to school buses in Kentucky after it was revealed that the emergency exit in the back of the bus was partly blocked by seats and hard to use because of a narrow aisle.

Because the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation, recommendations also have been made to use less flammable, less toxic materials in bus seats.

Fuel Tests to Be Urged

A state school bus safety task force apparently will recommend testing all fuel for buses as the debate over fuel explosiveness continues.

Stricter drunk-driving laws have been endorsed by Gov. Wallace Wilkinson, though the General Assembly has shown reluctance to get too tough.

“The law’s not fair here. The law’s not right,” said Lee Williams, whose wife, Joy, and daughters, Robin, 10, and Kristen, 14, were killed in the crash. He notes that Kentucky law allows the vehicle of a deer poacher to be seized. No such provision is allowed for drunk drivers. “Where’s the value?”

Mahoney of rural Owen County was driving the pickup, police say, on the wrong side of Interstate 71. His blood alcohol level two hours after the accident was 0.24; legal intoxication in Kentucky is 0.10.

Mahoney was pleaded not guilty and could be given 27 life sentences, plus 480 years, if he is convicted on all counts. Meanwhile, he is free on bond.

For Williams, that raises another question: “Can you promise me tonight this guy won’t drink and drive?”

Center of Attention

It is drunk driving that continues to prompt the most discussion and activity in this town. “It’s made the judges not only in our area but in the whole county more aware of the need to tighten the law and enforce it more strictly,” said Mayor Joseph Hutcherson.

Students Against Drunk Driving chapters are active at Radcliff Middle School and North Hardin High School. Linda Probus, a counselor hired to help students cope with the tragedy, said drinking and driving is no longer acceptable behavior among the students.

Residents take time to pull off the road to report suspected drunk drivers, said Police Officer Greg Mayfield.

As the anniversary approached, many of those touched by the crash had mixed emotions about the ceremony.

“I think the community, not to forget the families, is ready to put the accident to rest,” said Dick Booher, whose son Jason escaped from the bus.

“We want to be left alone. We want to try to put our lives back together,” said Williams, a career soldier who spends much of his off-duty time speaking publicly about the dangers of drunk driving.

But another reminder of the tragedy will come Nov. 8 when Mahoney goes on trial. His role is still a troubling one for many involved.

Probus said many of the students who survived the crash have changed their attitudes toward Mahoney. “Initially, they really, really wanted Mahoney to die.” As they have come to grips with the tragedy, they “want him punished, left in jail, but not to be killed.”

The memorial has marked a milepost in this tragedy but will not end it. Legislators still will debate tougher laws. State agencies will weigh the benefits of additional training for school bus drivers against the cost. Drunk drivers still will kill innocent victims.

Lee Williams still will think of his family when he sees a bus. And he will continue to warn people of the danger.

“I give these speeches for the Robins and the Kristens who haven’t been killed. I give these speeches for the husbands and the wives who haven’t been hurt.”

“That first anniversary is the toughest,” Garnett said. “Just when you think you’re getting a handle on it, you get ambushed . . . and that hole in your heart is as big as a canyon.”

The memorial service was the last of three ceremonies Sunday, the first drawing several hundred people and the last two more than 1,000 apiece.

The first was the unveiling of a black granite monument at the cemetery where many of the victims were buried. Engraved on the monument are names of those who were aboard the bus.

The monument was unveiled by six children, including four crash survivors: Aaron Conyers, 16, Harold Dennis, 15, Carey Aurentz, 15, and Katrina Muller, 14. Two others were children of crash victims--John R. Pearman Jr., whose father drove the bus, and Charles J. Kytta III, whose father was youth minister at the church that owned the bus, Radcliff First Assembly of God.