I can't imagine the pain of waking up in the hospital and being told your wife and 4 of your daughters have been killed. Just can't fathom that.

I can't imagine the pain of waking up in the hospital and being told your wife and 4 of your daughters have been killed. Just can't fathom that.

 

This was a blended family, too.

 

That means that two more phone calls to tell a mother and father that they've also lost children.

I couldn't help but think back to the Carrollton tragedy after reading about the accident noted above.

 

Carrollton bus collision (Wikipedia):

 

The Carrollton bus collision was one of the most deadly bus accidents in United States history. About 11:00 P.M. EST on a Saturday May 14, 1988, Larry Mahoney, a drunk driver in a pickup truck traveling in the wrong direction on an interstate highway, collided head-on with a gasoline-powered former school bus which was in use as a church bus. The initial crash was exacerbated when the gasoline from the ruptured fuel tank of the bus ignited immediately after impact, which also blocked the front loading door. Difficulties encountered by the victims attempting to evacuate the crowded bus quickly in the smoke and darkness through the only other designated exit, the rear emergency door, resulted in the death of 27 people and injured 34 of 67 passengers. Only six passengers escaped without significant injury or death. Mahoney sustained only minor injuries.

 

In the aftermath of the tragedy, several family members of victims became active leaders of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and one became national president. MADD has helped efforts to tighten standards for drinking drivers and alcohol-awareness. There are strong indications that the families and others in MADD have made a difference since 1988. According to the Firehouse.com website, with MADD's significant influence, all 50 states have now passed laws making it a criminal offense to drive with a designated level of alcohol, regardless of whether the driver is impaired or not. MADD then successfully lobbied to lower that original level of .10% down to .08%, and members are actively working to lower it even further.

 

The standards for both operation and equipment for school buses and similar buses were improved in Kentucky and many other states, notably increased emergency exits, better structural integrity, and less volatile fuel. Other safety issues remains to be addressed. Flammability of materials used in bus seating must also be factored with cost, durability and performance of the foam in impact situations. Another unresolved issue is the lack of requirements for occupant restraints such as seat belts in larger capacity school buses. Some advocates find it ironic that use of the lap seat belts currently available would have likely reduced the number of the 40 occupants who managed to escape the bus in the short time available during the Carrollton incident.

 

On Interstate 71, the crash site is marked with a highway sign erected by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). Even eighteen years later, memorial items such as crosses and flower arrangements continue to be placed at the site by families and friends. As of November 2007, the Carrollton crash remains the worst bus crash in U.S. history tied for fatalities with the Prestonsburg bus disaster which occurred 30 years earlier in Floyd County, Kentucky in 1958.

Side note related to above post: Shelby Valley boys' basketball coach Jason Booher is a survivor of the Carrollton bus crash.

What an idiot. He deserves to be charged for those 5 deaths as murders and never let him out of prison for the rest of his life. I hate people that do this kind of stupid stuff.

Update: $1.25 million bond set for the driver ...

 

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/NEWS05/801030427&GID=AT+PHw3tLn6/9j1TZ+IlwY0ctoHRrq+ytAh54DuwwQE%3D

 

... and now the bar has legal problems of its own.

 

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080104/NEWS06/80104060