Editing Carrollton bus collision (section)

==Background==
On May 14, 1988, a youth group mostly consisting of teenagers who attended [[North Hardin High School]], James T. Alton Middle School, Radcliff Middle School, and four adults from [[Assemblies of God USA|Assembly of God]] church in [[Radcliff, Kentucky|Radcliff]], [[Kentucky]], boarded their church bus and headed to [[Kings Island]] [[theme park]] in [[Mason, Ohio]], about {{convert|170|mi|km}} from Radcliff. The group included church members and their guests. As everyone arrived early that Saturday morning, the number of those wanting to go on the trip had grown to more than originally anticipated. The church's principal pastor, who did not join the journey, restricted the ridership to the legal limit of 66 persons plus the driver.

===Bus===
[[File:1972 Superior Coach Company advertisement.jpg|thumb|1972 advertisement for the Superior Coach Company, showing a similar bus to the one involved in the crash]]
The bus involved in the crash was a former school bus, configured with a bus body mated to a medium-duty truck chassis and frame. The 1977 model-year [[Ford B series#Fifth generation (1967–1979)|Ford B700]] chassis was mated to a Superior school bus body. The vehicle was designed with a capacity of 66 passengers and a driver, including 11 rows of 39-inch wide seats, separated by a 12-inch central aisle.

[[Ford Motor Company]] manufactured the B700 chassis at its [[Kentucky Truck Plant]] in [[Louisville, Kentucky]]; it was then shipped to [[Superior Coach Company]] of [[Lima, Ohio]]. A company owned by industrial conglomerate [[Sheller-Globe Corporation]],{{sfn|Kunen|1994|pp=182–3}} Superior manufactured the school bus body that was installed on the Ford B700 chassis. The vehicle was certified as a "school bus" with an effective build date of March 23, 1977, the date associated with the construction of the Ford chassis (as required by federal regulations{{sfn|Kunen|1994|p=185}}).

Both the vehicle type and the build date would later serve as important legal distinctions. The bus was manufactured on March 23, 1977, just nine days before four major federal safety standards were to take effect for school bus production.<ref name="School Transportation News-2009">{{Cite web|date=August 25, 2009|title=Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards|url=https://stnonline.com/news/federal-motor-vehicle-safety-standards/|access-date=September 4, 2021|website=School Transportation News|language=en-US|archive-date=September 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904112136/https://stnonline.com/news/federal-motor-vehicle-safety-standards/|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition to upgraded rollover protection, school buses produced on or after April 1, 1977, were required to be designed with improved structural integrity in body joints, better seating protection in crashes, and improved fuel system protection (to reduce spills and fires).<ref name="School Transportation News-2009" />

The completed bus was delivered in time for use during the 1977{{ndash}}78 school year and served ten years in use as a school bus. Radcliff Assembly of God acquired the used [[school bus]] as surplus from the [[Meade County, Kentucky|Meade County]] school district, and the church had owned it for about one year as a church bus. In July 1987, the church successfully made the same round trip with the bus to Kings Island. Along with short local moves on school days, the church also drove the bus successfully on several other long trips. It was maintained regularly by mechanically inclined church members, including a civilian motor pool supervisor from nearby [[Fort Knox]]. A week before the 1988 Kings Island trip, the bus received two new tires of good commercial quality; the front-end suspension and steering components were also examined at that time.{{sfn|Kunen|1994|pp=17–8}} The 11-year-old vehicle was considered to be in good mechanical condition on May 14, 1988.

===Trip===

On the trip, the bus was driven by John Pearman, a part-time associate [[pastor]] of the church who was a local court clerk.{{sfn|Kunen|1994|p=18}} The group left the church early that morning and traveled uneventfully to the park. They spent the whole day and early evening at Kings Island, then boarded the bus and began traveling out of Ohio and back into [[Northern Kentucky]] toward Radcliff. After about an hour, they stopped to fill the 60-gallon (227-litre) [[fuel tank]] with [[gasoline]], then resumed the trip southward.{{sfn|Kunen|1994|pp=27–9}}