S6 Ep7: Reckless Disregard: The Carrollton Bus Crash

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

History, Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In May 1988, a church bus returning to Kentucky was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver. Within seconds, it became an inferno. As families searched for answers, an unsettling truth emerged: The children had been trapped inside a bus never designed to protect them. The Carrollton bus tragedy is a story about how grief collided with corporate power, government delay tactics and America’s evolving reckoning with drunken driving.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're fascinated by true crime, then join us in October 26 for CrimeCon
0:05.2	London. Meet the biggest names in True Crime TV, experience live forensic demonstrations
0:10.4	and dive deep into the criminal mind with your favourite authors, experts, podcasters and content creators.
0:17.4	To secure your place, go to crimecon.com.com. now and be part of the UK's biggest true crime community.
0:24.2	CrimeCon London, partnered by True Crime Channel, 3rd and 4th of October, 2026.
0:30.3	A short word before we begin, this episode includes graphic descriptions of the death of children.
0:36.6	Please take care.
0:43.0	Thank you. includes graphic descriptions of the death of children. Please take care. Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society,
0:49.7	or even earn the label, Crime of the Century. But the stories that made headlines in decades past
0:56.3	aren't necessarily remembered today.
0:59.9	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist, an author,
1:02.4	and in each episode of this show,
1:04.4	I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today
1:07.4	but was huge when it happened.
1:11.2	This is Crimes of the Centuries.
1:34.5	Larry Mahoney's job required him to work three 12-hour shifts.
1:36.4	Then he would get three days off.
1:42.2	He had gotten off work at 7 a.m. that Saturday morning, having done two shifts back-to-back.
1:46.5	It wasn't a bad job for a guy who hadn't made it through the 10th grade.
1:50.0	It paid $11 an hour, which was pretty good in 1988.
1:53.2	That would translate to about $30 an hour today.
1:58.9	Mahoney stole a few hours sleep before his 15-year-old son woke him around noon.
	...

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