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Church bus and school bus safety issues have always been closely-related in the United States. On May 14, 1988, a tragedy brought the issues together as never before.
The Bus accident at Carrollton, Kentucky in 1988 was one of the worst bus accidents in United States history. 27 people including the bus driver were killed and 34 other bus passengers sustained minor to critical injuries. Only 6 bus passengers were not injured.
Many factors came together in tragedy that terrible night. A tired, volunteer driver operating a flawed and over-crowded church bus had to face a drunk driver coming up the Interstate the wrong way. While the immediate cause was the drunk driver of the other vehicle, it was soon realized that all of the deaths on the bus and most of the injuries occurred not due to injuries received during the impact of the collision, but because the bus caught fire and the occupants could not evacuate promptly after the impact.
The church bus had been originally built and served as a school bus. If it had been built new as a church bus, additional emergency exits would have been required. But the often tougher school bus standards were weaker in the area of emergency exits than the standards for a non-school bus. As the country reacted in shock and horror, it also became clear that the church group, their bus driver and church had violated no federal, state, or local law, regulation, or any applicable safety standards.
And yet, this tragedy occurred. The public and media outcry of "How could this happen?" soon turned into an echoing "We must prevent such in the future."
Because so many things went wrong that night, studying the accident and the aftermath has become an opportunity for many professionals and the public to learn a great deal about the importance of many aspects of bus equipment and bus operations.
Bus Accident at Carollton Kentucky in 1988
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