For the past three or four years we've been driving periodically between Louisville and Ohio, along a stretch of Interstate 71 that winds through the hills, parallel to the Ohio River and across the Kentucky River, to Interstate 75, south of Cincinnati, Covington, and Florence. At about the halfway mark between Louisville and Cincinnati, at a particular curvy, hilly spot is a marker for a tragic 1988 bus crash. I always figured bad weather and the hilly turn caused the crash. But, it turns out - we learn this week, since today is the 20th anniversary of the crash - that a drunk driver was driving the wrong way up the southbound lane and hit the bus head on, causing a fire that burned to death 27 people, mainly kids from the youth group of a Kentucky church that owned the bus. The case triggered changed in DUI laws and pushed bus manufacturers to incorporate more exits and flame-resistant materials in buses. The driver of the truck survived, got out of jail after 10 years, and now lives near the crash. Some of the survivors ended up marrying each other. The crash remains one of the deadliest in U.S. history, and it made a big impression on locals here - Twenty years later my colleagues Susan says she still remembers exactly where she was when she first heard about the crash. Now, we'll know more if we drive by there this weekend. (Survivors and families of those who died were to hold a memorial service at the site tonight.)
1 comment:
this is one of the worst I do remember like it was yesterday what a shame those poor peple didnt have to die like that I wish I could done something for them all but I couldnt
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