SCRIPT: Those Were Our Children 2/99

Feb. 19, 1999 — -- Tonight, an explosive investigation. The incredible story that is emerging from a catastrophic accident. When an 18-wheel truck and a family van filled with sleeping children crossed paths on a Midwest highway, profound tragedy resulted and a huge political scandal erupted from the flames.

The headlines in Chicago shouted bribery, outrageous cheating on the truck driver's licensing test and allegations that powerful, high-profile people knew or should have known what was going on. Was public safety being compromised for political gain? Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross with a tragedy that led to a search for justice.

BRIAN ROSS, ABC News

There have been lots of good times at the Parkwood Baptist Church on the south side of Chicago.

JANET WILLIS, MOTHER

Hey, are you sure you know how to hold babies?

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS, FATHER

Sure.

BRIAN ROSS

But none better than when its pastor, the Reverend Scott Willis, and his wife, Janet, came home with their ninth child, Pete, in September of 1994. At the age of 47, Janet had already seen three older children grow up but still had six little ones at home.

JANET WILLIS

I was either pregnant or nursing most of the last 15 years. It just seemed very normal for me.

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS

You can put it on the record that she was barefoot and pregnant most of the time.

BRIAN ROSS

There were laughs all around that day as the youngest Willis children welcomed their new brother.

SAM WILLIS, SON

My name's Sam.

JANET WILLIS

Who are you?

BEN WILLIS

Ben.

JANET WILLIS

And who's that? Who is the little guy?

BEN WILLIS

Pete.

BRIAN ROSS

But this would be one of the last of the good times for the Willis family.

ELIZABETH WILLIS

Elizabeth.

JANET WILLIS

OK. And that's Hank.

HANK WILLIS

Hank.

BRIAN ROSS

A little more than a month after this home video was made, these six children would all be dead, killed in a tragic highway accident involving a dangerous truck and a driver with a suspect license, an accident that first devastated the Willises and now has led them on a long, difficult search for justice.

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS

There was no accountability. If our children had been murdered, we would expect justice to be served. And in this case, we would expect also that justice, accountability would be taken care of.

BRIAN ROSS

And there wasn't accountability?

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS

There wasn't accountability. It seemed like it was avoided. It was not only avoided, but it was being stifled.

BRIAN ROSS

And now Janet and Scott Willis have found themselves up against some very powerful people as they dare to ask questions about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their six children, which responsible authorities had, until recently, failed to.

JANET WILLIS

There is a sense of this is something we have to do. It would be a whole lot easier just to let this all go by and let us go on with our life.

BRIAN ROSS

What's involved are questions about a system that allegedly put thousands of unqualified truck drivers on the road and then ignored warnings of danger.

TERRY BRUNER, CHICAGO BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

Someone had to die. There had to be an awful accident. And that's exactly what happened. I mean, it was predictable if you think about it.

BRIAN ROSS

Questions about state employees exchanging truck driving licenses for bribes and campaign contributions from trucking companies and truck driving schools.

TAMMY RAYNOR, STATE LICENSING EXAMINER

I thought to myself, my God, this is not only for campaign contributions. This is cash and carry.

JUDGE

Do solemnly swear...

BRIAN ROSS

And questions about the man whose campaign fund benefited from the alleged scheme and who just last month was sworn in as the Governor of Illinois. George Ryan, who as Secretary of State for eight years, oversaw truck driving licenses but says it is ridiculous to think that his employees would do anything illegal for him.

GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN, (R) ILLINOIS

People I don't even know. Why would they risk their home, their life, their whatever they do to go to jail so they could give me a couple hundred bucks?

BRIAN ROSS

Before the accident, Janet and Scott Willis would have seemed unlikely candidates to be leading the charge in uncovering political scandal. Sweethearts since the seventh grade, Janet and Scott were a devoted couple: he a Baptist minister, she a full-time mom who taught her children at home. On the day of the accident, theirs was a life of God and family.

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS

It was election day in '94, and we got in the van, went out. We were having a great time.

BRIAN ROSS

The Willis family was headed north out of Chicago that day on Interstate 94, off to Wisconsin to celebrate one of the boys' birthdays.

JANET WILLIS

I looked back, and it looked like they were all sleeping as far as I know, and then I laid back. Scott said we better get some rest.

BRIAN ROSS

A short distance ahead on the highway, a piece of a truck trailer was about to fall off, and other truckers were trying to warn the driver.

LARRY PETOSKEY, TRUCK DRIVER

I knew that it was going to fall off sooner or later, and someone was going to get hurt.

BRIAN ROSS

Yet, according to Larry Petoskey, a truck driver for 30 years, the driver didn't respond to repeated warnings over a 10-mile stretch.

LARRY PETOSKEY

Finally got up alongside of him, blew the horn at him, motioned like this to the back, "You've got a problem." And he kind of looked over to me like that and just continued on his way. Tried to get a hold of him on the CB and no response.

BRIAN ROSS

The loose steel piece broke off about 100 feet ahead of the Willises' minivan, and Reverend Willis says he had no choice but to drive over it.

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS There was no way at that time I could move out of the way then. The next thing I knew that there was this sound, it wasn't real loud, but it was just a boom, a thump. And the car went into -- went sideways. And we realized later that the gas tank had exploded into the car, right to where the children in the back were. They would have had the impact of the explosion.

JANET WILLIS

And immediately, I heard Scott shouting, "Get out of the van. Get out of the van." But as soon as I got a few feet away from the van and looked back, it was engulfed in flames, like an inferno.

BRIAN ROSS

Asleep and strapped into their seat belts, five of the children, including 6-week-old Pete, died in a matter of moments while their father watched helplessly.