The story of corporate negligence and drunk driving that led to deaths for twenty-seven children and adults in a Kentucky school bus reveals the family who refused to settle their lawsuit and helped change standards to protect all children. 25,000 first printing.
Reckless Disregard
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In a shocking expose of the nation's school buses, Kunen (The Strawberry Statement) focuses on the 1988 head-on collision of a Kentucky school bus and a pickup truck driven by an intoxicated motorist, which killed 24 children and three adults aboard the bus. Kunen had the cooperation of Janey and Larry Fair, whose daughter Shannon was among the victims. The Fairs and another victim's parents, the Nunnallees (whom he also interviewed) initially rejected a settlement offer from Ford, maker of the bus. Instead, the couples pressed the corporation for safety improvements. During a 1992 trial, both couples decided to settle; each was awarded $5 million. The trial and federal hearings indicated that the 27 deaths resulted from an exposed fuel tank, flammable seating materials which emitted toxic fumes, and inadequate safety exits. Many, perhaps most, U.S. school buses today have the same hazards. Using the Kentucky tragedy as a vehicle, Kunen has written a compelling report that deserves the national attention accorded Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
On May 14, 1988, a fiery school bus crash near Carrollton, Kentucky, took the lives of 27 adults and teenagers; it was caused by a drunk driver going the wrong way on an interstate highway. The crash raised sensitivities about drunk driving, but, more importantly, it raised issues about school bus safety. The real revelation in journalist Kunen's book is the story of how two families successfully sued Ford Motor Company, which knowingly manufactured buses that had severe safety defects. Fuel tanks were not shielded to prevent rupture, fire seats were made of flammable polyurethane, and there was a single emergency rear door. The book incorporates many first-person accounts, court records, and records of interviews; of real note is a transcript of a meeting with then President Richard Nixon, Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, and John Ehrlichman about safety. Recommended for public libraries.
William A. McIntyre, New Hampshire Technical Coll. Lib., Nashua
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
William A. McIntyre, New Hampshire Technical Coll. Lib., Nashua
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
James S. Kunen is the author of popular and critically praised books that grapple with legal and political issues in a personal way. A prize-winning journalist, he is best known for his 1968 memoir, The Strawberry Statement: Notes of a College Revolutionary--his account of the antiwar student strike at Columbia. It has been translated into four languages and widely used in college history and writing courses. MGM's film version of the book won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.
Graduating from Columbia in 1970, Kunen was sent to Vietnam by True magazine to write a series of articles, which led to his book Standard Operating Procedure: Notes of a Draft-Age American (1971).
After working as a freelance journalist, Kunen earned his juris doctor degree from the New York University School of Law and joined the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., where he moved from misdemeanor cases to representing people accused of serious crimes, including murder. He recounted his experiences in 'How Can You Defend Those People?': The Making of a Criminal Lawyer (1983).
Returning to journalism, Kunen worked as an op-ed editor for Newsday, a contributing writer for Time magazine, and a featured writer and senior editor for news at People magazine, where he reported and wrote cover stories on Donald Trump, Tawana Brawley and Abbie Hoffman, among others. His reporting on a tragic school-bus crash led him to write a book, Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash (1994.
Kunen left People in 2000 to serve as a director of corporate communications at Time Warner Inc. in New York City, where, among other things, his job was to maintain employee morale during the company's merger with AOL and the rounds of layoffs that followed. In 2008, after being laid off himself, he embarked on a search for meaningful work that led him to his current position teaching English as a Second Language at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, N.Y. He describes the journey from corporate PR man to teacher of immigrants in his new memoir, Diary of a Company Man: Losing a Job, Finding a Life.
Kunen's Time magazine cover story on the resegregation of America's schools won him a First Place in Features award from the New York Association of Black Journalists and an award for reporting in education from Unity Awards in Media. As a freelance writer, he has written for The Atlantic, Esquire, GQ, Harper's, New York, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, and other leading publications. He was a columnist for a national magazine, New Times.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
James Kunen did an exceptional job.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash (Hardcover)
I had seen a road sign in Kentucky referring to a bus crash, but didn't know anything about it. One day I saw Mr. Kunen's book at a local bookstore and realized it was the same thing. When I started reading the book I couldn't put it down. Up until that day it was a road sign; afterwards it was a tragic memorial to the death of the innocent.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer
This review is from: Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash (Hardcover)
My math teacher was on the bus when it crashed and allowed me to read one of his two copies of this book, 3 of his friends were killed and if it was n't for his other friend he would have died too for he was sitting 3 rows from the front and saw the youth director get blown up when the explosion occured.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Book I EVER read,
By
This review is from: Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash (Hardcover)
This book was fascinating from the first page until the last. Mr.Kunen has a way with words that will grip the reader as he did me. The intimate details of the crash and the lives of the young victims will bring a tear to your eye. And how Ford Motors was defeated in the end will have you cheering in a bittersweet way. A masterpiece. I have read hundreds of books and this book tops my list to this day even though I first read it 6 years ago.
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