# Guy who caused Ky. bus crash: dead or alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 3, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190 "2001-10-03T14:59:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davesink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@davesink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davesink)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/1 "2001-10-03T14:59:55Z")
I’ve heard reports both ways. Anyone know the latest? ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/2 "2001-10-03T15:05:56Z")
I originally read that he was among the six dead. Now at [BBC online](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1577000/1577237.stm) it reports: > [@](#): > > The incident happened near Manchester, halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga, on Interstate 24. > > The man who allegedly caused the crash is still alive, according to US Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden. He holds a Croatian identification card, she said. > > There is no suggestion yet that the incident was linked to the 11 September terror attacks on New York and Washington. The US Transportation Department said it appeared to be a “random” event unrelated to those attacks. Note, this is in Tennesse, not Kentucky. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/3 "2001-10-03T15:37:56Z")
MSNBC says alive, and that the assailant is Croatian. > **[MSNBC News - Breaking News and News Today | Latest News](https://www.msnbc.com/)** > > MSNBC breaking news and the latest news for today. Get daily news from local news reporters and world news updates with live audio & video from our team. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/4 "2001-10-03T16:04:50Z")
CNN says dead according to the local 911 director and a local TV guy the CNN anchor was talking to during the 7am PT hour that I was watching. [http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/03/bus.crash/](http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/03/bus.crash/) ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/5 "2001-10-03T20:30:27Z")
The attacker is dead and he is not dead. Is this another one of Schroedinger’s wacked-out physics experiments? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/6 "2001-10-03T22:05:49Z")
The AP says that the assailant is dead. [http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bus-Crash.html](http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bus-Crash.html) (but you would have to register to use that site) Speculating wildly, it sounds like the sad case of a man flipping out and getting some ideas from recent events. The driver’s throat was cut by a box cutter used by the assailant, but he wasn’t killed, showing that you have to have some practice to turn one of those into a lethal weapon as was the case on 9/11. A man hijacked a bus in L.A. a few months ago and people were killed as a result of that also. Again, it was someone suffering from a severe mental illness who thought that he needed to go on to the bus to take care of someone from the wrong ethnic group speaking to someone of the hijcaker’s ethnic group. All utterly pointless. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/7 "2001-10-03T22:16:02Z")
So the General Answer is, “media reports conflict” until either a) they agree (probably sometime tomorrow) or b) someone from the accident scene or Manchester PD happens on this thread, right? We don’t need every media report on this, right? ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/8 "2001-10-03T22:23:58Z")
I get local tenn. news broadcasts through my sat. dish. They are reporting on the local news that the highjacker was killed in the crash ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guy-who-caused-ky-bus-crash-dead-or-alive/85190/9 "2001-10-04T00:36:56Z")
I live in Tennessee. The attacker is dead, along with five other people. The bus driver will live. Kudos to the brillant work by Vanderbuilt University Hospital surgeons. Local sheriffs panicked & shouted “Terrorist”. Local TV anchors blew it up into mass hysteria. The attacker was a sad, sick little man. He killed both himself, & others; but he is not part of the greater tradegy of 9/11/01. It may not have even been a boxcutter that was used. Local news suggests that it may have been a straightrazor. Life goes on after 9/11. The sad, sick parts go on, too. Regretably, this is part of it. ☹