NATION : Driver Guilty in Fatal Bus Crash

Larry Mahoney was convicted today of 27 counts of second-degree manslaughter and most of the other charges he faced in the nation’s deadliest alcohol-related traffic crash, which claimed the lives of 27 people riding home from a church outing.

Mahoney bowed his head slightly as the verdict was read on each count he faced from the fiery crash May 14, 1988. Mahoney, 36, was charged with 27 counts of murder, 12 of first-degree assault, 42 of wanton endangerment and one of drunken driving.

Jurors were to consider a sentence later in the day.

Mahoney was driving his pickup in the wrong direction on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, when it rammed head-on into a bus, killing 24 children and three adults who belonged to the Radcliff First Assembly of God church. Mahoney’s lawyers said he admitted being drunk and driving north in the southbound lanes of the divided highway.