Daily Egyptian
Fall '03 Edition
The Toll Taken
Nicole Sack
Daily EgyptianSometimes it takes getting lost to find what you didn't know you were looking for.
After becoming disenchanted with the wrinkled printout map off the computer that we had depended on to guide us through a small Kentucky town, we stopped at a local Citgo station to buy a bona fide state highway map.
Inside the gas station, we weighed the pros and cons of different Kentucky maps as we examined them for the best details of the streets of Radcliff, Ky.
A man who had been hauling buckets of ice from the back room of the store and tossing them into the soda machine cooler asked if he could help us find what we needed.
Our conversation began with introductions and polite conversation. We told him that the four of us, three reporters and a photographer, had come from a student newspaper in Carbondale to revisit this town's worst tragedy and the site of the deadliest drunk driving crash in the history of the United States.
We told him we were trying to get to Radcliff Middle School, where some of the 27 victims attended before that fateful night of May 14, 1988. But the stranger we had met moments earlier suggested an alternate destination.
"Let me take you to the cemetery," he said.
* * * * * RADCLIFF, Ky. ˜ Jerry Hodges drives his red Dodge Stratus through the hilly streets of Radcliff.
He knows where 14 of the victims are buried. Fifteen years ago, he was the Sunday school teacher at First Assembly Church of God, the same church that loaded a bus with children and chaperones who left for their yearly retreat and never returned.
On the night of May 14, 1988, Hodges was working at a supermarket when he heard the church bus that was returning from King's Island amusement park, outside of Cincinnati, had been involved in a collision with a pick-up truck.
Larry Mahoney was driving his black pick-up truck north in the southbound lane of Interstate Highway 71.
The head-on crash punctured the bus's gas tank. Moments after impact, flames sparked. The 67 passengers coughed against the black toxic smoke that billowed from the burning bus seats as they desperately clawed their way off the bus.
When emergency respondents examined Mahoney after the crash, they found his blood alcohol level to be at .24, more than twice the legal limit.
The church's Ford bus was later deemed a tomb. Faulty gas tank protection, insufficient emergency exits and highly flammable and toxic burning seat cushions all played some part in the high death toll.
Ford Motor Company settled a lawsuit with 65 of the families, reportedly for at least $36 million.
As well as the lawsuit, Ford paid for the black marble memorial in North Harden Memorial Gardens that lists the names of all the passengers who were aboard the bus that night. Ford also paid for the tombstones that Hodges would visit today.
* * * * * * "It's been a long time since I've been back here," Hodges says. "I try to stay away from sadness as much as possible."
Hodges walks the rows of graves. A blanket of silence muffles the cemetery; the parched grass under his feet makes an uncomfortable sound. He begins to remember the nicknames of victims.
Immediately he begins to locate the plots where the children of his church rest.
"Not all the kids were members," he said. "Some were invited friends."
Of the 67 bus passengers, only 34 attended First Assembly of God Church. The other 30 were friends they had invited along to enjoy the daylong getaway. There were only three adults on the bus.
As Hodges continues to walk, sad anticipation sets in as he looks for the accident indicator: young lives, all ending on the same day ˜ May 14, 1988.
The gravestones of the victims all lack the accomplishments that are obtained during a full lifetime. Where there should be reference to husbands, wives and children left behind, there are only wishes and dreams of what their lives could have been.
"May is a time of sadness," he said. "When you're just a bystander, you don't want to bring it up."
When the wreck happened, the town was in shock. Such a large loss of children in a town of 21,000, roughly the size of Carbondale, was a lot to handle. The average age of the children on the bus was 14.
The next year, there was no marching band at Radcliff Middle School; only three of the band members were still alive.
"That crash was so gruesome," Hodges said. "I've never been to the crash site. People say it is so cold there."
* * * * * The year that followed the accident, The Courier Journal in Louisville, Ky., launched its Pulitzer Prize-winning report into the accident investigation and to the issue of drunk driving. The state of Kentucky adopted stricter penalties and enforcement practices for drunk drivers.
The crash revolutionized the way Kentucky approached bus safety standards. Specifications now require flame-retardant seats, fuel tank cages, push-out windows, left-side emergency exits and escape hatches in the roof.
But even with the public outcry and mourning, Hodges said the DUI arrests started occurring again in the area just six months after the deadly crash.
One thing that did change and remained constant was the increased role and presence of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
"There is always a representative from MADD at DUI cases," he said. "They want to know what the charge will be."
MADD's interest in sentencing may have been sparked by Mahoney's conviction.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky was seeking life in prison on 27 counts of murder against Mahoney. But after 17 days of testimony from 124 witnesses, the jury convicted Mahoney of only second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 16 years in a La Grange, Ky., prison. He was eligible for parole on July 20, 1997.
Looking up from the grass and stretching his gaze up to the sky, Hodges says, "Money talks, and everything else walks."
Mahoney was released from prison in 1999 after serving 9 1/2 years of his 16-year sentence. The DAILY EGYPTIAN staff was unable to contact Mahoney. It is believed that he is living with his parents in Worthville, Ky., which is near Carrolton, the site of the crash.
Since Kentucky law does not prohibit convicted felons from driving and driving records are expunged after five years with no incidents, Mahoney is now eligible to receive a new Kentucky driver's license if he chooses.
"After the crash, there were a lot of crosses around town that said, 'You have to believe and forgive,'" Hodges said. Nevertheless, "People wanted him dead."
There has been some forgiveness. There had to be a place for closure to begin.
As Hodges circles the lots of the cemetery one last time, he heads toward his car, saying he needs to smoke a cigarette.
As he finishes his Salem Lights and before he leaves the cemetery he has not visited in years, he is comforted by one thought.
"Those children went for some reason or another," Hodges said. "Some survived, and some didn't. God only knows why one and not the other. That was for God to decide."
Nicole Sack can be reached at: nsack@dailyegyptian.com
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