1989 — Sep 21, Collision, Truck and Mission School Bus, Drownings, Alton, TX — 21

—  21  McAdams, Tony. “Blame and The Sweet Hereafter,” Legal Studies Forum, 24/3-4, 2000.

—  21  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  FARS 1975-2010 Fatality Analysis.

—  21  NTSB. HAR. Collision…Consolidated… School…Bus…Coca-Cola…Tractor-Semitrailer.

—  21  NY Times. “Driver Acquitted of Homicide In School Bus Crash in Texas.” 5-7-1993, A14.

—  21  NY Times (Belkin). “Where 21 Youths Died, Lawyers Wage a War.” 1-18-1990, A1.

—  21  Wikipedia. “Alton, Texas.”

—  16  OJP, DOJ.  Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual: 2nd Ed. (Appendix D).

 

Narrative Information

 

NTSB: “Synopsis. About 7:34 a.m ., central daylight time, on Thursday, September 21, 1989, a westbound school bus with 81 students operated by the Mission Consolidated Independent School District, Mission, Texas, and a northbound delivery truck operated by the Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Company, McAllen, Texas, collided at Bryan Road and Farm to Market Road Number 676 (FM 676) in Alton, Texas.

 

“After the collision, the truck came to rest facing west on he right shoulder of FM 676. The school bus continued in a northwest direction and dropped approximately 24 feet into a caliche pit (excavation pit) partially filled with water, located in the northwest corner of the intersection. The bus came to rest on its left side facing southeast, totally submerged in approximately 10 feet of water, approximately 35 feet from the nearest shoreline. The bus front boarding door was jammed shut, but the rear emergency exit door was operable. No other emergency exits were on the bus.

 

“Nineteen students died at the accident scene, and two died later in the hospital. The 21 fatalities were the result of drowning or complications related to the submersion. Furthermore, 3 students sustained serious injuries, 46 others sustained minor injuries, and 11 students were not injured.

 

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the truck-driver’s inattention and subsequent failure to maintain sufficient control of his vehicle to stop at the stop sign. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the lack of a sufficient number of emergency exits on the school bus to accommodate the rapid egress of all 81 students.

 

“The safety issues discussed in this report include:

 

• Adequacy of school bus egress guidelines.
• State and local emergency response planning for mass casualty accidents.
• Adequacy of school busdriver medical examination report reviews.
• Training of public safety personnel regarding calls for emergency assistance.
• Vehicle maintenance procedures of Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
• Adequacy of Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Company driver training.
• Crashworthiness of large school buses.

 

“Safety recommendations addressing these issues were made to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Texas Department of Public Safety; Texas Education Agency; Hidalgo County; City of Alton, Texas; Mission Consolidated Independent School District; Coca-Cola Enterprise, Inc.; Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Inc.; and the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

 

“As a result of its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board made the following recommendations:

 

–to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

 

• Revise Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 217, Bus Window Retention and Release, to include a requirement that floor level emergency exits should be designed so that once opened they remain open during emergencies and school bus evacuations. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-74)

 

• Revise Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208, Occupant Crash Protection, to include a requirement that lap shoulder belt systems for the driver position be installed in all newly manufactured buses, including city, intercity, small, and large. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-75)

 

• Cooperate with the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services to prepare a comprehensive school bus emergency evacuation – rescue guide. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-76)

 

• Conduct research to determine the safety benefits and disadvantages of larger school bus side windows. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-77)

 

• Revise Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 217, Bus Window Retention and Release, to include a requirement for larger side windows in school buses if research proves that larger windows are more beneficial to school bus occupant safety. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-78)

 

–to the Texas Department of Public Safety

 

• Examine the status of emergency management response plans statewide and work in coordination with and provide guidance to county and local governments in complying with the Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management emergency response plans requirements. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-79)

 

• Evaluate in cooperation with Hidalgo County its compliance with the Texas Disaster Act of 1975. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-80)

 

–to the Texas Education Agency:

 

• Coordinate the modification of school bus specifications prepared jointly with the State Purchasing and General Services Administration and the Texas Department of Public Safety, to include a requirement that lap shoulder belt systems for the driver position be installed in all newly manufactured buses including city, intercity, small, and large. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-81)

 

–to the Hidalgo County:

 

• Develop a system to identify all traffic regulations and traffic control devices in the county and other appropriate jurisdictions within Hidalgo County. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-82)

 

• Review emergency response plans in coordination with the Texas Department of Public Safety and update and enforce these plans to be in compliance with the Texas Disaster Act of 1975 and the Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management requirements. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-83)

 

–to the City of Alton:

 

• Provide public safety personnel assigned to telephone duties with training in techniques of handling calls for emergency assistance. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-84)

 

• Provide public safety personnel with guidance in handling emergency response, command, and on-scene control of community-wide emergencies and disaster. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-85)

 

–to the Mission Consolidated Independent School District:

 

• Institute procedures that will ensure accurate review of the school busdriver medical examination report form and related documents and enforcement of any limitations. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-86)

 

–to the Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.:

 

• Conduct a review and evaluate the number of mechanics and the provided resources in each of its operations to ensure that proper vehicle maintenance is performed in accordance with manufacturer specifications. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-87)

 

–to the Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Inc.:

 

• Develop and implement a formal truck driving training program including classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction with emphasis on driving articulated vehicles, using seatbelts, and complying with traffic regulations. The program should include maintaining adequate records and other documentation of driver examinations, including road test results. The training should be performed by qualified instructors). (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-88)

 

• Establish procedures and provide adequate resources to ensure that proper vehicle maintenance is performed in accordance with manufacturer specifications. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-89)

 

–to the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services:

 

• Cooperate with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to convene a national task force to prepare a comprehensive school bus emergency evacuation-rescue guide. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-90-90)

 

“Also, the Safety Board reiterated Safety Recommendation H-89-5 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

 

• Revise Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 217, Bus Window Retention and Release, to require that school bus egress be based on vehicle occupant capacity and be no lower than those currently required for non-school buses. (Class II, Priority Action) (H-89-5)

 

Jim Burnett, Member, filed the following concurring and dissenting statement:

 

“I concur with the probable cause as adopted, but would have added that, “contributing to the severity of the accident was the deficient condition of the truck’s brakes.”   I voted not to adopt the report because the report deals inadequately with the issue of the performance of the brakes on the Coca Cola truck and its effect on the accident scenario.

 

Sep 22, Titusville Herald (AP): “ALTON, Texas (AP) — A bus crowded with youngsters on their way to school Thursday plunged more than 40 feet into a water-filled pit after being struck by a delivery truck. Nineteen students were killed and 64 other people were sent to hospitals.

 

“Dazed students scrambled out of the submerged bus and stood on it, screaming for help. Rescuers dove in 12 feet of water to pull out survivors and the dead trapped in the bus. Passers-by pulled youngsters out of the bus, as notebooks and school papers floated on the water. Four boats, firefighters from six departments and about 10 divers helped in the rescue….

 

“The driver had picked up his last student en route to nearby Mission High School when the bus collided with a soft-drink truck about 7:40 a.m. at an intersection just east of Alton, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

“Leon [student survivor] said the truck driver ran a stop sign and struck the bus, sending it careening off the road about 20 feet and into the gravel pit. The truck remained alongside the road. Sgt. David Baker of the state Department of Public Safety said he believed the truck was traveling north and the bus west when they collided. Both drivers were being treated at hospitals….

 

“Roads were dry and the weather was clear at the time of the accident….

 

“All the dead were 12 to 18 years old, said…a public safety spokesman in Austin. A temporary morgue was set up at a civic building in Mission….” (Titusville Herald (AP). “School Bus Plunges Into Pit; Nineteen Students Killed.” 9-22-1989.)

 

Sep 22, Indiana Gazette, PA: “….Some survivors said the truck driver ran a stop sign and struck the bus, sending it careening off the road about 20 feet and into the gravel pit, which had no fence or railing….Sixty-six people were taken to hospitals; four students and bus driver Gilberto Pena were in critical condition, according to hospital officials.

 

“Truck driver Ruben Perez said his brakes failed, according to Sgt. Israel Pacheco of the state Department of Public Safety. No charges had been filed against Perez late Thursday….

 

“The truck passed a state inspection last week, according to officials at Coca-Cola Co., which owns the truck.

 

“Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the state attorney general’s office were at the scene Thursday.

 

“The accident stunned Alton, population 3,000, and the larger neighboring city of Mission, where the junior and senior high school students were headed for school….

 

“I thought I was going to die,” Alex De Leon, 18, said as he stood in front of Mission Hospital in

muddy pants and hospital slippers, with cuts on his face and bruised hands. “It just filled up with water real quick. “I opened up a window, took out my sister, took out a couple of friends and it was already full of water, and you could diesel,” he said….”

 

The bus, which had 81 people aboard, was designed to carry 83 people, said Herman Light, quality assurance director for manufacturer, Blue Bird Body Co. of Fort Valley, Ga….”  (Indiana Gazette. “Funerals Begin as Investigation Goes On,” 9-22-1989, p. 4.)

 

Sep 22, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise: “….Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra, who visited the scene, said the case will be presented to the next grand jury.  “Presently, there may be some criminal negligence here,” he said. “It might possibly be involuntary manslaughter if recklessness can be attributed to the driver or the company.”….” (Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, TX. “Bus Accident Probe Begins…” 9-22-1989.)

 

Sep 25, Galveston Daily News: “MISSION – The driver of the soft-drink delivery truck that struck a school bus is dazed and distraught over the accident that killed 20 school children and injured 63 others, his family and neighbors said.  Ruben Perez, 25, remained at his parents’ home in rural Mission. He was the driver of a truck that went through a stop sign and struck the school bus, sending the bus into a water-filled pit. Twenty junior- and high-school children were killed in the accident Thursday morning.

 

“Perez refused to answer questions from investigators on Saturday, said National Transportation Safety Board member Lee Dickinson.  “His counsel advised him not to talk to the Safety Board and to exercise his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights,” Dickinson said. “So we did not talk to the driver.”

 

“Perez’s uncle, Tieurcio Santiago, said his nephew is not ready to talk about the accident.  “I haven’t talked to him too much. He’s in bad shape emotionally,” Santiago told The Dallas Morning News on Saturday….

 

“Perez initially told authorities that the truck’s brakes failed. Dickinson said preliminary NTSB tests showed that “the brakes did work,” although they were not perfectly adjusted. The truck passed state inspection last month, he said.

 

“A neighbor of Perez said many people in the area have thought of Perez. “I don’t know him but I felt like calling him today,” said Alma Bean. “I feel sorry for him: You’re innocent until proven guilty.”  Even if he is at fault, she said, “he surely didn’t want it to happen”….

 

“In July 1987 Perez was convicted of charges of speeding and driving without vehicle insurance. He paid a fine after failing to appear in court on the offenses, court records showed.”  (Galveston Daily News. “Truck Driver ‘Distraught’ Over Crash,” 9-25-1989, A7.)

 

McAdams: “When tragedy strikes, we need to blame someone. Thus, when a bus crash killed a group of school children in fictional Sam Dent, New York, author Russell Banks carefully scrutinized the town’s need to blame the bus driver and the effects of that need, including the impact of the swarm of lawyers that descended on Sam Dent. Banks’ 1991 novel, The Sweet Hereafter, examines blame, responsibility, liability, lawyers, truth, greed, the implications of community, and more in a penetrating moral fable. The novel was followed by director Atom Egoyan’s 1997 movie by the same name where some of those themes are subjected to Egoyan’s probing sensibility. The book was inspired by a 1989 school bus crash in south Texas which took the lives of 21 children, provoked a blizzard of lawsuits and, in some ways, destroyed a community. This triangulated view of horrific, youthful, death highlights the moral implications of tragedy while questioning our communal and personal responses to that tragedy….

 

“Characteristically, in our civilized way, we turn to the legal system to sort out who to blame by converting these moral responsibility themes into liability problems. From there, we do the best we can, but inevitably almost no one is fully satisfied. The courts often cannot conclusively resolve who is to blame and even where that question is satisfactorily answered we ordinarily have no remedy other than incarceration and/or money damages to make things right again. So efforts to assign blame often lead to enormous suffering while the  failure to make the effort would lead to some irreparable damage to the soul, both individual and collective. Thus, we seem to have no choice even though we understand that moral peace won’t be forthcoming either way….” (McAdams. “Blame and The Sweet Hereafter,” Legal Studies Forum, 2000, 599-600.)

 

Minutaglio: “The Sweet Hereafter is based on a true story, the September 21, 1989 deaths near Alton, Texas of 21 children whose school bus plunged into a municipal gravel pit. The bus was struck by a soft-drink delivery truck which had plowed through a stop sign. Sixty children survived the accident. The small, impoverished Mexican-American community was devastated.

”Dozens of lawyers hurried to Alton, reportedly even approaching families in the morgue and in hospitals (McQueen, 1993).[1] The soft-drink truck was owned by Valley Coca-Cola, a division of the soft drink giant. The bus manufacturer was sued on the grounds that the standard rear emergency door should have been supplemented with an exit on the left side of the bus which would have permitted most or all of the children to escape. The community of Alton was sued because the pit was not thoroughly barricaded, and some lawyers sued other lawyers for allegedly stealing law suits. The State Bar sought to bring actions against lawyers whom it believed to be paying people to refer clients to them. Some families who settled soon after the accident sued again after discovering that other families had received larger settlements. The 350 lawsuits resulted in settlements totaling more than $150 million. In the end, Valley Coca-Cola paid some $144 million in claims of which lawyers took an estimated $50 million (McQueen, 1993). Families who lost children received about $4.5 million from Valley Coca-Cola for each boy or girl who perished while the 60 children who survived each received an estimated $500,000 to $900,000 (Minutaglio, 1993: 8)[2]. One father, who allegedly hadn’t seen or supported his deceased daughter in years, collected $1,000,000 (Minutaglio, 1993: 8). The rescuers sought compensation, as did people who merely saw or heard about the accident (Minutaglio, 1993: 8).

Minutaglio: “Ironically, the driver of the soft drink truck sued claiming the truck had defective brakes and that he hadn’t been properly trained. He also sued Valley Coca-Cola’s lawyers, whom he thought had been representing him (Minutaglio, 1993, p. 8). The driver was prosecuted for criminally negligent homicide, but four years after the accident was acquitted of all charges. Prosecutors said the driver had been inattentive.

“For the poor, mostly Hispanic farm workers whose children died or were injured, the American legal system was a mystery. As the New York Times reported, many of those parents simply got caught up in a process that they didn’t understand:

 

“I didn’t want a lawyer,” said Carmen Cruz, whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in the crash and whose 14-year-old daughter was injured. “I said, ‘The first lawyer who can bring my daughter back, I’ll hire.’ But everyone started telling me: ‘No, that’s the law. When this happens to you, you hire a lawyer and you get money.’ So now I have a lawyer.”

 

Actually Mrs. Cruz has had a number of lawyers, and has been courted by more than half a dozen. She has signed three contracts and tried to cancel two of those. One lawyer gave her $5,000 and promised to help her buy a new house. Another helped her buy the shiny GMC Suburban van that now stands outside her dilapidated apartment.[3]  (Belkin, 1990: A1).

 

NYT: “After nearly four years of being labeled a “killer” in Texas’s worst school bus accident, the driver of a soft-drink delivery truck has been found not guilty on all 21 counts of criminally negligent homicide arising from the crash.

 

“After hearing two and a half weeks of testimony, the jury in this impoverished border county on Wednesday acquitted Ruben Perez, 29, of the charges — one for each of the children who died in an accident that sent a school bus plunging into a flooded roadside gravel pit on Sept. 21, 1989…

 

“Prosecutors based their charges on the fact that Mr. Perez had run a stop sign and had failed to yield the right of way to the bus at a crossroads in nearby Alton.

 

“Lawyers for Mr. Perez argued that their client was not to blame because the brakes on the 44,000-pound tractor-trailer truck he was driving had failed.

 

“The Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Company, which owned the tractor-trailer, and the Blue Bird Body Company, which designed and built the school bus, have paid more than $150 million in settlements to families of victims.

 

“The jury’s foreman, Edward J. Rios, said: “Basically, we felt Ruben Perez was a victim of the maintenance of Coca-Cola. I knew the terror these children must have gone through, being under water and unable to get out, but I explained to the jury that we needed to keep our emotions out of this.”…

 

“Surrounded by more than a dozen family members, Mr. Perez haltingly described how the crash had changed his life. “I was just so scared,” he said. “A lot of people were saying bad things about me, but they don’t know me. It was just an accident.”

 

“Lawyers for Mr. Perez say that the accident left him “brain damaged” and emotionally scarred. He has filed a personal injury suit against Valley Coca-Cola and a malpractice suit against the company’s lawyers for turning over to prosecutors a deposition taken while he was hospitalized.

“The only thing I can say is I’m sorry so many kids died,” Mr. Perez said Wednesday. “I wanted to send flowers, but we didn’t have no money.”…

 

“Prosecutors said Mr. Perez had been inattentive and had reacted incorrectly to avoid the accident. Although a helper on the truck said he had alerted Mr. Perez about 100 yards before the intersection, and although the driver applied the foot and hand brakes and downshifted, the truck collided with the bus.

 

“Defense lawyers argued that Mr. Perez was the victim of poor training and cutbacks in maintenance that left the truck’s brakes seriously out of adjustment. One defense witness testified that there had been more than two quarts of oily sludge in the truck’s air-brake system.

 

“Other witnesses said the students would have survived had it not been for the unbarricaded pit and a poorly designed bus. A survivor described escaping through one of the bus’s nine-inch windows while those still submerged inside clawed at her legs.

 

“The lead defense lawyer, Joseph A. Connors, said: “The cause of the accident was the loaded missile Coca-Cola sent out day after day with poor maintenance and poor brakes.” Mr. Perez, he said, “was a captive of a runaway vehicle.”

 

“Prosecutors originally indicted Mr. Perez on 21 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Ruling that prosecutors had not proved “recklessness,” Judge Fidencio M. Guerra Jr. last week reduced the charges to misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and fines.

 

“Tests on Mr. Perez showed no traces of alcohol or drugs.

 

“Hidalgo County’s district attorney, Rene Guerra, who is not related to the judge, had vowed to put Mr. Perez behind bars, and he made a rare personal appearance in court to prosecute the case. Afterward, he said he had done his best.  “May the children’s souls rest in peace, because I certainly can’t do any more about it,” said Mr. Guerra, the prosecutor, whose soft-spoken style contrasted sharply with Mr. Connors’s theatricality. “He’s going to have to live with this for the rest of his life,” Mr. Guerra said. “After the judgments against Coca-Cola, he’s going to live pretty handsomely, I’d say.”

 

“There was little passion evident among the victims’ families for criminal justice, and few family members attended the trial.  One who attended faithfully was Mary Regalado Hernandez, whose sisters Apolonia, 13, and Maria Guadalupe, 15, drowned. She was unhappy with Mr. Perez’s acquittal.  “To me, he will always be the man behind the wheel who took my sisters’ lives,” she said. “I can tell you this, regardless of the verdict, my mother will never laugh the same way again”.” (NYT. “Driver Acquitted of Homicide In School Bus Crash in Texas.” 5-7-1993, A14.)

 

Sources

 

Galveston Daily News, TX. “Despite Tragedies Rio Grande Valley Area Rallies in Unity,” 9-24-1989. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=112802318

 

Indiana Gazette, Indiana, PA. “Funerals Begin as Investigation Goes On,” Sep 22, 1989, p. 4. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=110393981

 

McAdams, Tony. “Blame and The Sweet Hereafter.” Legal Studies Forum, Vol. 24, Numbers 3  & 4, 2000, pp. 599-610. At: http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/lsf/mcadams24.htm

 

Minutaglio, B. “Cruel fortune; the worst school bus crash in Texas history took 21 lives. Then it ripped fragile fabric of a tiny South Texas town,” Dallas Morning News, August 22, 1993,  p. 8.

 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Partial Data Dump of Crashes Involving 10 or More Fatalities, by Year, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 1975-2009 Final and 2010 ARF. Washington, DC: NHTSA, pdf file provided to Wayne Blanchard, 1-26-2012.

 

National Transportation Safety Board. Highway Accident Report. Collision Between Consolidated Independent School District School Bus and Valley Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Inc. Tractor-Semitrailer, Intersection of Bryan and Texas Farm-To-Market Road 676, Alton, Texas, September 21, 1989 (NTSB Number HAR-90/02, and PB90-916201). Washington, DC:  NTSB, adopted 7-17-1990. Accessed 6-2-2016 at:  http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HAR9002.pdf

 

New York Times. “Driver Acquitted of Homicide In School Bus Crash in Texas.” 5-7-1993, A14  Accessed 6-2-2016 at:  http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/07/us/driver-acquitted-of-homicide-in-school-bus-crash-in-texas.html?scp=1&sq=Driver%20acquitted%20of%20homicide%20in%20school%20bus%20crash%20in%20Texas,&st=cse

 

New York Times (Lisa Belkin). “Where 21 Youths Died, Lawyers Wage a War.” 1-18-1990, A1. Accessed 6-2-2016 at: http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/18/us/where-21-youths-died-lawyers-wage-a-war.html?scp=1&sq=Belkin%20%20Where%2021%20youths%20died,%20lawyers%20wage%20a%20war%20%20January%2018%20&st=cse

 

Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice. Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual: Second Edition (Appendix D: Catastrophes Used as Reference Points in Training Curricula). Washington, DC: OJP, U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed at:  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/crt/pdftxt/appendd.txt

 

Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, TX. “Bus Accident Probe Begins as Town Buries First Victims.” 9- 22-1989. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=115355541

 

Titusville Herald, PA. “School Bus Plunges Into Pit; Nineteen Students Killed,” 9-22-1989, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=104263072

 

Wikipedia. “Alton, Texas.” Accessed 8-8-2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton,_Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] McQueen, M.  “From Grief to Greed,” ABC News Show: Day One, June 7, 1993.

[2] Minutaglio, B. “Cruel fortune; the worst school bus crash in Texas history took 21 lives. Then it ripped fragile fabric of a tiny South Texas town,” Dallas Morning News, August 22, 1993,  p. 8.

[3] Belkin, L.  “Where 21 Youths Died, Lawyers Wage a War. New York Times, January 18, 1990, p. A1.