On the 14th of May, 1988, a group from the Radcliff First Assembly of God Church spent
the day at the Kings Island Amusement Park in Ohio. The trip went well, and when the group piled
back onto the church’s yellow school bus in the evening they were exhausted but blissfully happy.
As they set off on their return journey, however, they had no idea that the actions of just
one man would mean that more than a third of their number would never make it home.
A day trip to Kings Island was something the Radcliff First
Assembly of God church had organised in previous years,
and which had always been very popular with younger members of the congregation.
This year was no different – children and teens from a mix of local schools would be attending.
In fact, the trip was so popular that the church bus was full to its maximum capacity – those who
had been able to get permission from their parents and get a seat on the outing in time
considered themselves lucky to be there. There were 67 people on board the bus in total,
most of them aged between 10 and 17 years old. There was also the driver – associate pastor
John Pearman – and three other adults who acted as chaperones during the day.
The journey out was uneventful, and the group’s time in the park was a good one. With clear
weather, they enjoyed everything that Kings Island had to offer – including rollercoasters,
games, souvenirs and theme park food. As early evening settled in and the park began to close,
the group reconvened in the car park, and got ready for the three-hour journey home.
The bus on the way back was crowded and sleepy. Some kids dozed off, exhausted after a long day.
Others chatted, played games or ate snacks to pass time.
The aisles were filled with soft toys and inflatables that had been won during
the day. It was a peaceful and perfectly happy group that made its way homewards.
When the accident happened, it happened quickly. There was a shuddering crash and a massive jolt,
which threw many of the unsuspecting occupants of the bus to the floor, or into the seats in front
of them. There were screams and general confusion as the bus skidded to a halt.
Nobody on board at that exact moment had a clear picture of what had happened. But what
had happened was this: a pickup truck, with a drunk driver behind the wheel, had been speeding
down Interstate 71 in the wrong direction, and had smashed head on into the front of the bus.
The impact had slewed the pickup around and slammed it into the side of the bus too,
causing a puncture in the bus’s fuel tank, which sent gasoline spraying out under the bus.
Within seconds, before the passengers on board had recovered from the shock of the impact,
this fuel caught fire. Flames leapt up at the front of the bus,
completely blocking the main doors, and prompting a terrified scramble as 67 people tried to escape
the vehicle through only one remaining exit. John Pearman, the driver, whose daughter
happened to be on board, grabbed a portable fire extinguisher and started to fight the flames.
It was completely impossible. The bus had just refuelled at a gas station minutes before,
and so there was a huge amount of fuel for the fire. It quickly consumed the front of the bus,
overwhelming John Pearman. Although his daughter was able to escape, he did not survive.
With the front of the bus consumed by flame, the rear door was the only recourse for most
of the passengers on board… but within moments of the crash the aisle was crowded with people and
bodies. Passengers tripped over souvenirs from the day, including a giant inflatable pencil
and a drinks cooler. The door itself was narrow, and a crush quickly formed, with panicking kids
pushing to try and escape before the flames could reach them. Children climbed over the backs of
seats and over one another in order to try and escape. The aisle between the rows of seats was
just 30 centimetres (or 12 inches) wide, leaving little space for an easy or orderly evacuation.
Some children did try to escape through the windows,
but these were stiff and difficult to open – with catches that required two hands to actuate.
Even when they were opened fully, they provided only a narrow gap to clamber through,
and so only children who were young or very small in stature stood any chance of escaping this way.
The flames spread down the bus with astonishing rapidity. They fed on spilled fuel,
on the upholstery of the seating, and on the luggage and other items within the bus. Several
survivors recall pulling themselves upright using handholds or the backs of seats… which were so hot
to the touch that they caused burns on contact. The account of survivor Harold Dennis Junior gives
some impression of just how awful conditions were during the fire:
“It all happened very very very fast. Very quickly, very chaotically. If you
didn’t react instantly, you weren’t going to make it... I didn’t know what I was doing,
I went toward the front and that’s right where the fire was, the gas tank was a few rows in front of
me on the opposite side of the bus, so I turned around... So if you could imagine, the only lights
you have are flames. Sixty plus people all going for the same opening... I climbed seat after seat
after seat. I fought people, I fought bodies, I fought everything I could to get to the back.”
Drivers on the other side of the interstate stopped and ran to help as best they could,
but what they could do was limited. The fire was extremely fierce,
and consumed the entire bus within minutes. 40 escaped. 27 did not. Of those who did survive,
all but a tiny handful sustained injuries that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.
In the aftermath of the collision there was, of course, one person who was very
clearly to blame for what had happened. The name of the drunk driver was Larry Mahoney.
On the night of the crash he had been drinking with friends who had been so alarmed by his
state of inebriation that they’d taken his car keys from him… but had returned them when he
promised to drive straight home. He had not driven straight home, but instead had gone to purchase
more alcohol, before heading onto Interstate 71, where he drove north on the southbound
carriageway for more than one-and-a-half kilometres (or one mile) before the collision.
Mahoney was injured in the crash, and only learned of what had happened when he woke up in hospital
the next day. He was promptly arrested, put on trial, and imprisoned for 16 years for
the manslaughter of 27 people. He served just less than ten years before he was released,
and then went on to live a quiet and isolated life in Kentucky.
Although he did not want to speak publically about what had happened,
he expressed remorse for his actions. Many victims and their families, despite initial anger,
eventually forgave him, saying that the damage he had done had not been done intentionally, and that
he had made a terrible mistake, and paid for it. The punishment of the drunk driver who caused
the accident was not the only consequence of the disaster. The wrecked bus was inspected, and it
was found to have several design flaws which could have been remedied to make the crash less deadly.
The church had made a point of maintaining the bus well, but it was still an old second-hand vehicle,
with some features that were severely outdated. The seats, for example,
were made of a flammable material, and no protective cage was in place around the fuel tank.
There was just one emergency exit, and the windows were not of a kind that could easily be broken
or pushed out if necessary. These issues were almost entirely a result of the bus
having been built a long time ago, before any such safety measures were mandated by law.
Challenged on these issues, the manufacturer of the bus – the Ford Motor Company – eventually
agreed to a settlement of around $40 million for the victims and their families.
One family refused the settlement, and instead asked for just one dollar… along with a promise
from Ford to recall and retrofit outdated buses with more emergency exits and fuel
tank protection. Ford refused this offer Despite this, safety standards for school
buses in Kentucky were raised significantly after the crash, with new rules mandating
fireproof seats, and at least nine exits on each school bus. School fleets were
required to switch to diesel vehicles also, as diesel is much less flammable than gasoline.
Crucially there was also a push to enforce these standards even on vehicles that were
no longer owned or used by schools, and which had been sold on as surplus. Free safety checks were
offered by the state for all second-hand school buses, regardless of what they were used for.
With school buses being such ubiquitous vehicles, these improvements to their general safety
were significant. Whether owned by schools or privately, buses like these complete millions
of journeys each year – journeys which are now significantly safer than they were in 1988. In
this way, at least, some good arose from the misery and suffering of the Carrolton Bus Crash.