Re: Worst Drunk Driver Ever
Date: August 16, 2010 07:48AM
Yes, Larry Mahoney drove drunk that night. I don't know the man, either. And, yes, when he drove into that bus head-on, he triggered a terrible tragedy. But the company who made that bus (Ford) should share in much of the blame. That bus was not safe enough to be on the road. The gas tank was not shielded properly; the seats on the bus were made of flexible polyurethane foam, which is an organic material and, like all organic materials, is highly flammable; and because of where the pickup truck hit the bus, there was only one exit and that was at the back of the bus. When that bus was hit by the pickup truck, a passenger on the bus was overheard asking, "What did we hit, a deer?" Does that sound like a question asked by someone who was about to die from being hit by a "murderous" drunk driver? No, those people, mostly kids, could've gotten off the bus if the bus was built with safety in mind. They had very little time. Mr. Mahoney hit that bus in a spot where some sort of metal object, some type of spring or coil, flipped back into an unprotected gas tank, puncturing a hole in a 60-gallon metal container that had just been filled 10 minutes earlier. With gas spilling all over the pavement, all it took was a spark to ignite a fire. And if the bus had been manufactured the way buses are built today, those kids would've had more time to get off of it. Instead, the fire went underneath the bus and came up through the vehicle's very cheaply made floorboards, and literally took seconds to catch the polyurethane foam on fire. And once that happened, it created a flame-broiled oven effect. Yes, that bus became a giant oven, and with flames everywhere and the inside of that bus reaching temperatures of almost 2,000 degrees fahrenheit, it took about 10 more seconds for some of that gasoline to catch up to the blazing oven, then poof, an explosion ensued. But those kids would've had a chance to survive if it wasn't for the corporate greed of Ford Motor Co. Years earlier, Ford execs went to the President of the United States, who at the time was Richard Nixon. And they asked Mr. Nixon to delay some of the safety regulations that Congress passed in the early 1970s because, to quote Lee Iacocca (Ford president at the time), those safety regulations "are killing our profits." And Mr. Nixon delayed all those safety regulations, enabling Ford to make more buses like that, thus keeping them on the road longer. Some believe Iacocca did this because he was the one who designed/created the Ford Pinto, which wasn't safe, either. But Ford made several vehicles that were not safe, including that bus and approximately 19,499 just like it. Now all buses have several exits with stronger floor boards and seats that aren't made with polyurethane foam. So, keep laughing at Mr. Mahoney, and keep calling him a murderer. Yes, I agree, he should've been convicted of drunken driving and sent to prison, which he did serve 10 to 11 years for his conviction. But the real murderers are the men who ran Ford back in the '70s, and, yes, even President Nixon himself. Those are the murderers who should've done hard time, too.