‘TRYING TO HEAL’
Thirty years ago, a drunken driver traveling the wrong way on a Kentucky interstate hit a church bus carrying 67 people. The collision caused a giant fireball to sweep through the bus, killing 27 and injuring 34 of the passengers.
RADCLIFF, Ky. – One moment he’s at the pump, fueling the school bus he drives for a living.
The next he’s trapped in a church bus erupting in flames. Clothes on fire, kids scream for help as melting paint from the ceiling drips on bare skin and lungs fill with black, toxic smoke from blazing seat cushions.
Such flashbacks come without warning for Quinton Higgins Jr., one of 40 survivors of a crash May 14, 1988, in Carrollton, Ky., that left 27 dead and many more injured, some grievously, when a drunken driver hit their bus as they headed home after a day at an amusement park.
“Even though I’m an adult, I’m trapped at 15,” said Higgins, 45, of Radcliff, who suffered burns and lung damage from the crash. “It took many years trying to heal from this. I’m still trying to heal.”
On the 30th anniversary of what remains the nation’s deadliest drunken driving crash, Higgins and other survivors said they finally are reclaiming their lives from the catastrophe that defined them
for so many years.
Survivors work through conflicting feelings and agonizing memories of the night when a pickup traveling the wrong way hit the bus owned by Radcliff First Assembly of God. The collision punctured the bus fuel tank, turning 60 gallons of gasoline into a giant fireball that swept through the bus.
“It got so hot in there,” said Joe Percefull, 44, an administrator with Oldham County public schools. “You literally felt like you were burning from the inside because you were just breathing in all that hot air.”
Temperatures inside the bus quickly reached 1,500 degrees.
Because the front exit was blocked, panicked young people fled through smoke and flames toward the only other exit, at the rear. Charred remains of those who didn’t escape were found piled in the aisle and draped over seats.
“The pain that I have from that event never goes away,” said Percefull, who suffered from burns and smoke inhalation. “I still remember every single thing that happened to me.”
Many survivors have reconnected through social media, including a private Facebook page. Some said they are increasingly willing to speak out so people never forget the devastating impact of the crash on themselves, their friends, their families, the community.
“It’s our year, to stand up and be survivors, to let us grieve and let us talk about where we are,” said Ciaran Madden, 44, of Radcliff, whose face, neck and right arm were scarred by thirddegree burns at age 14. “There’s a lot of people that say ‘Get over it.’ This is something that you don’t get over. This is the year I’m finding out, yeah, you really don’t get over it.”
The teens who survived are in their 40s and have careers, spouses and children of their own. Yet they remain haunted by memories of the crash that horrified a nation and led to major changes in school bus safety, as well as tougher drunken driving laws in many states, including Kentucky.
“There’s a lot of people that say get over it. This is something that you don’t get over.”
Ciaran Madden, 44
They wonder why they survived and their friends died.
“I lost my best friend in the accident, Joshua Conyers,” Percefull said. “He was sitting right beside me when the accident happened. How did I manage to get out when he didn’t?”
They’re also troubled by the yearslong silence of Larry Mahoney, the man who served 10 years in prison after he was convicted of manslaughter for killing 27 people by crashing into the church bus while drunk.
Mahoney has never spoken publicly since his conviction in 1989 and did not respond to a request for comment. He was released from prison in 1999.
Madden said she visited Mahoney in prison for several years after he responded to a letter she wrote in hopes of better understanding the man who caused so much suffering.
“It wasn’t in me to hate him as much as I wanted to hate him,” she said.
Madden said Mahoney, in their conversations, was remorseful and emotional but said he remembered nothing about the crash.
After he left prison, Mahoney stopped responding to her calls and letters, Madden said.
Survivors often wonder what their lives would have been like had the crash never occurred. Some said that despite its horrors, they have come to a realization over time.
“Am I a better person today having survived or endured this?” asked Harold Dennis, 44, who survived near-fatal smoke inhalation and burns that badly scarred him. “Yes, I think so. I would have to say yes.”
Still, “nobody would choose that,” said Dennis, a physician’s assistant in Lexington. “I would bring the 27 fatalities back tomorrow if I could.”
Scarred from third-degree burns at age 14