American schoolgirl who died at age ten in a fire ignited in a bus collision which occurred at 10:55 PM on 14 May 1988 on Interstate 71 in unincorporated Carroll County, Kentucky. Patty Nunnallee was the youngest of the 27 people who died in the incident.
The collision involved a former school bus in use by a church youth group and a pickup truck driven by an alcohol-impaired driver. The head-on collision was the deadliest incident involving drunk driving and the third-deadliest bus crash in United States history. Of the 67 people on the bus (counting the driver), there were 27 fatalities in the crash, the same number as the 1958 Prestonsburg, Kentucky bus disaster and behind the 1976 Yuba City bus disaster (29) and 1963 Chualar bus crashes (32).
Nobody aboard the bus was seriously injured by the actual collision between the two vehicles (though both vehicle drivers sustained injuries). However, the impact of the collision created a secondary situation, when the gasoline fuel tank on the bus was punctured thus igniting the fuel supply. Within four minutes or less, the entire bus was on fire. Soon the entire interior of the bus flashed over, ultimately burning the trapped 27 people remaining aboard.
In the aftermath of the disaster, several family members of victims became active leaders of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and one (Patricia’s mother Karolyn Nunnallee) became national president of the organization. The standards for both operation and equipment for school buses and similar buses were improved in Kentucky and many other states. These include an increased number of emergency exits, higher standards for structural integrity, and the use of less volatile diesel fuel (over gasoline).
Link to Wikipedia biography