What were the worst car accidents that occurred in our country? What were the causes these catastrophes? What changes were made because of them? Although this could be discussed in several different categories (number injured, number killed, number of vehicles involved, most property damage, etc.) there are some accidents in recent history that stand out as more traumatic than others. In order to learn from our mistakes, it is important to be aware of past accidents so that we can do everything possible to ensure that they will never happen again.

One such incident was the Carrollton, Kentucky bus collision. On May 14^th, 1988, a drunk driver was driving on the I-4 going the wrong direction. When he collided head-on with a church bus, the damaged fuel tank burst into films, blocking the front door exit. This tragedy led to the death of 27 people and the injury of 34. Several family members who lost a loved on in that accident went on to become leaders in Mothers Against Drunk Driving, one becoming the national president. They also fought against the safety issues that made the accident worse than it had to be, including increasing the number of emergency exists, using less flammable fuel, and ensuring that buses are more structurally sound.

Drunk drivers are not the only cause of accidents; dangerous weather conditions can also play a role. An extreme example of this was the pile-up that occurred in dense fog in Tennessee. On December 11^th, 1990 on the I-75, a blanket of dense fog quickly covered the highway. It fell so suddenly that the warning signs were inadequate to alert motorists of the danger. As a result, 70 cars were involved in a pile-up that stretched over a half a mile of the freeway. The fog, seemingly endless collisions, and car fires increased the confusion and led to 13 deaths. It took over 33 fire companies to deal with the wrecks and it has proved to be on of the most serious in the state's history. Now, the highway has a fog warning system with the ability to close on ramps in order to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again.

Traffic accidents do not exclusively have to include cars and trucks, as was shown in the 1999 train-truck collision that took place in Illinois. On March 15^th, 1999, a truck tried to cross the track before a train but instead was hit. The accident occurred in the evening at Bourbonnais, Illinois on the Illinois Central Railroad. When the semi-truck carrying a cargo of steel collided with the train, it caused 11 of the 15 passenger cars to derail. The truck driver stated that the gates did not come down until the truck was already going across the tracks and he could not brake suddenly or the steel behind him could crash through his cab. However, the National Transportation Safety Board said that the cause of the accident was his failure to yield and he was given two years in prison for violating his logbook and hours of service.

During rush hour on August 1^st, 2007, the Mississippi River Bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Built in 1964, the bridge was the fifth busiest in the state and was crossed by nearly 150,000 cars every day. When it suddenly collapsed, 145 people were injured and 13 were killed. There were over 100 vehicles involved in the accident and it sent some of them over 115 feet down the river. Others were left stranded on sections of the collapsed bridge. It was not until three weeks later that all of the victims' bodies were recovered, as some were buried under pieces of the bridge. This has been stated to be the worst bridge disasters in U.S. history.