Milo D. Bryant, who as state transportation secretary advocated for safer school buses after the 1988 Carrollton, Ky., bus crash that killed 24 children and three adults, died early Wednesday after a brief illness. He was 82.
Most recently, Bryant was chairman and CEO of Ayrshire Electronics, a full-service electronic manufacturing services company headquartered in Louisville, Ky., but he led the state Transportation Cabinet in May 1988, when an older-model school bus used by a Church group was struck head-on by a drunken, wrong-way driver on Interstate 71. The bus was returning to Radcliff, Ky., from a youth outing to Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati. Of the 60 passengers, 27 died, including the driver, after being trapped on board in the ensuing fire. Another 34 passengers were injured.
The National Transportation Safety board concluded in its investigation that the front, primary loading door was jammed shut as a result of the collision, which forced nearly all the passengers to try to evacuate through the rear emergency door. A bottleneck along the 12-inch bus aisle ensued, which was made worse by the presence of a beverage cooler that had been placed in the aisle near near the back of the bus.
As a result, former Kentucky Gov. Wallace Wilkinson appointed Bryant to lead a bus-safety task force that ultimately recommended additional exits on new buses, push-out windows on both new and old buses, fire-retardant seats and floor coverings, and increased training for new bus drivers.
Doug Alexander, Wilkinson’s former spokesman, said in an article that school buses and schoolchildren are safer today because of Milo and Gov. Wilkinson. He also noted a $50 million rebuilding project spearheaded by Bryant that aimed to re-inforce bridges that school buses frequently travel upon.
“Two of the initiatives of the Wilkinson administration, for which Milo had responsibility, have never gotten the attention they deserve. One was the adoption of new safety features on school buses following the Carrollton bus crash. The other was the repair or replacement of bridges in Kentucky that would not bear the weight of a loaded school bus,” he said.
Bryant also served as an unpaid advisor on transportation issues to former Gov. Paul Patton.
His time with the Transportation Cabinet came with some controversy. Bryant was accused of “low-balling” construction estimates in an attempt to get more projects in the state’s six-year road plan, and he denied ever taking money from a highway contractor who was acquitted in a federal bid-rigging trial.
Bryant was also criticized for putting up highway signs on I-71 commemorating the Carrollton crash.
He is survived by his wife, daughter, three grandchildren and his brother.
