This is the first of the Three Appearances of Joe Don Baker as Former Captain, then Acting Chief Tom Dugan. He played a southern Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall (1973)
This story has its basis in a tragic true story: on March 28, 1987, five students from the University of Mississippi (all of who were members of the Chi Omega sorority) were killed as they participated in a charity walk-a-thon along Highway 6 between Oxford and Batesville. A truck plowed into their escort vehicle, which then flipped and hit the group. About a dozen others were injured.