The 20th anniversary of the worst drunk driving crash in U.S. history is being celebrated today, Wednesday, May 14, 2008. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is reaching out for the country to pause for a couple of minutes of silence at 11 a.m. CT, today in honor of the victims/survivors of the crash as well as support the MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving by signing the oath to help make sure that there are no future drunk driving victims/survivors.

Going back to its history, a repeat DUI offender with a .24 percent blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was the wrong way down the highway driving a pickup truck, crashed into a bus returning from a church tour to Kings Island Amusement Park on May 14, 1988. The sweltering crash took the lives of 27 passengers, 24 youth and three adults, which include Patty, Karolyn Nunnallee's 10-year-old daughter. Furthermore, thirty others were injured. As a result, Karolyn was motivated and propelled by the disastrous and preventable incident into a career of volunteer activism starting at the local community level and then she became MADD National President from 1998-1999.

"For nearly 20 years I have fought on the grassroots level adhering to the mission of MADD, and my work is far from over. As a victim advocate I am so grateful that MADD took the lead and formed the first Crises Response Team in the nation. They were the first to assist the first responders in the crash and then coming to Radcliff to assist the families whose loved ones were killed and those who were scarred physically and mentally in the crash,” says MADD Past National President Karolyn Nunnallee.