Driver Arrested in TN School Bus Crash That Killed Six

Nov. 22, 2016
Chattanooga officials said five children died at the scene and the driver was charged with vehicular homicide.

Bus driver Johnthony Walker, 24, has been arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving, according to Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher during a news conference Monday evening at 11:30 p.m. Standing near the site of the Woodmore Elementary bus crash on Talley Road, Fletcher said five children died on the scene.

Fletcher said he could not say if any fatalities occurred at Erlanger hospital, and added that the driver may face additional charges in coming days.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash and the Chattanooga Fire Department was involved in extricating victims who were trapped on the bus. 

The Hamilton County Department of Education confirmed there were 37 Woodmore Elementary students on board the bus. Their grades range from kindergarten to fifth.

Of the students involved in the crash there were five confirmed fatalities, six critically injured, six admitted to hospitals but not critically injured and 20 treated and released by local hospitals.

The Hamilton County District Attorney's office reported one additional fatality at a local hospital.

Families of the students who died on the scene have been notified, Fletcher said, but not all families of the children on the bus have been reunited with their families at this point. Emergency officials are working to reunite all families, Fletcher said. 

Interim Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Kirk Kelly is at the hospital with grieving families. 

Traffic investigators are still processing the scene and the National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into the crash. 

If anyone gave a student a ride to a hospital from the bus please contact the Chattanooga Police Department, Fletcher asked.

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Previous story:

Six Woodmore Elementary children died in a bus crash Monday, with just one school day remaining until Thanksgiving break.

The school bus carrying 35 students overturned and crashed into a tree less than a mile from the school around 3:20 p.m.

The crash happened on two-lane Talley Road in the heart of a residential neighborhood just north of Brainerd Road, turning front lawns into triage stations for injured students rescued from the bus and staging grounds for frantic parents who pleaded for information about their children from emergency personnel.

Some asked to approach the wreckage, but emergency responders on the other side of a web of yellow caution tape kept them away while working to track down information on children for distraught family members.

Five students died on the bus and another died at Erlanger hospital, according to officials. Other students were in critical condition Monday night.

Students who were not rushed to the hospital walked away from the scene clutching their parents' hands, looking dazed. They had cuts and blood on their faces. Other students laid on stretchers in yards, waiting for additional ambulances.

It took emergency crews several hours to remove trapped children from the bus, and investigators were at the crime scene late into the night. The National Transportation Safety Board has launched a federal probe into the crash, and investigators are expected arrive in Chattanooga this morning.

"What has happened [Monday] is every public safety official's worst nightmare," said Chattanooga police Chief Fred Fletcher. "But that is nothing in comparison to the nightmare that families, friends and our community is going through with this tragic loss to children in our community."

The best way to support the county's students is by allowing kids to attend school today, said Hamilton County Schools Interim Superintendent Kirk Kelly, and counselors will be available.

"We will have support for our students, our staff, members of our community," Kelly said. "We will continue to provide this support for as long as it is needed. We will do everything we can to try and help the families involved in this tragedy."

Twenty-three students were transported to T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital at Erlanger for treatment. Parents of Woodmore students were seen running up the street toward the hospital, and families filled the hospital's waiting room praying for good news.

The driver of the bus, whose identity had not been released as of press time, was on his regular route, officials said.

He was questioned Monday and was cooperating with investigators, Fletcher said. A warrant was issued to remove the data recorder on the school bus and to review the video on that school bus, he added.

"Certainly, speed is being investigated very, very strongly as a factor in this crash," Fletcher told reporters.

The speed limit on the road is 30 mph.

Hamilton County Schools contracts its busing services with Durham School Services, one of the nation's largest suppliers of school bus services. In Hamilton County, Durham operated about 240 of the district's 300-350 buses. The others are operated by independent contractors.

Gov. Bill Haslam said the state is going to do everything it can to assist in the wake of the tragedy.

"It's a sad situation any time there's a school bus with children involved, which there is in this case," he said. "We will do everything we can to assist in what I think is going to be a very sad situation."

Once more is known about the cause of the crash, Haslam said, it would be a good time to discuss having seat belts on buses.

California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York all have mandatory school bus seat belt laws, and Texas requires seat belts on school buses purchased after 2010, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Rep. Joe Armstrong, D-Knoxville, led an unsuccessful effort to require seat belts on Tennessee school buses last year after two students and a teacher's aide died in a bus crash in Knoxville. Many lawmakers opposed the proposal, saying it was too expensive.

In the 2014 crash, the driver was texting and swerved over a concrete median, crashing into another bus, according to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The crash resulted in a new Tennessee law increasing penalties for bus drivers caught texting and driving.

Just last week, a bus of Chester County high school students crashed in Nashville and more than 20 students were injured.

The bus driver lost control, swerved to the left side of an exit ramp and then over-corrected back to the right and struck a guardrail and overturned, the Tennessean reported.

Fifty-three children were killed across the nation while riding in school buses from 2004-2014, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

Late Monday night teachers from across the district gathered at Woodmore Elementary School painting a colorful mural of encouragement and support.

At the scene of the crash Monday afternoon, a chaplain with a Hamilton County badge asked one mother if he could pray with her.

She said yes.

The two began praying, echoing the prayers of thousands from around the city — and country — as news of the accident spread.

Contact staff writer David Cobb at 423-757-6249 or dcobb@timesfree press.com.

Contact staff writer Kendi A. Rainwater at 423-757-6592 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @kendi_and.

Stay with the Times Free Press as more information becomes available.

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