The Carrollton Bus Crash: 25-Years Of Healing

Twenty-five years ago, a drunk driver, traveling the wrong way down Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, slammed head-on into a church bus full of children on their way home from a day at Kings Island Amusement Park in neighboring Ohio.

Twenty-seven people died in the fiery crash, 24 of them were children.  It is still to this day the deadliest drunk driving crash in U.S. history.

Forty people survived, including Harold Dennis, who suffered disfiguring burns to his face and other parts of his body.

Despite insurmountable odds, he walked-on and made the University of Kentucky football team. 

Today, he is a successful businessman, husband and father of three children.

For the last three years, he has been working on a documentary about the crash entitled, ‘IMPACT:  After The Crash.’ 

The 80-minute film, which was directed by Winchester native and Eastern Kentucky University alumnus, Jason Epperson, was shown for the first time privately to survivors and victims families on the 25th anniversary on Tuesday. 

The first public showing is Wednesday at the Hardin County Schools Performing Arts Center in Elizabethtown.  The 700-seats sold out in minutes. 

The documentary re-enacts the crash, honors the victims and chronicles survivors amazing stories. 

Harold Dennis and Jason Epperson plan to take the documentary to several film festivals and eventually get it on HBO.  It is also scheduled to eventually come out on DVD. 

For more information about the documentary, visit www.theimpactmovie.com. 

We invite you to watch the video portion of this story for a compelling interview with Harold Dennis on the 25th anniversary of the Carrollton Bus Crash.