| Advertisement |
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- The school bus driver involved in a crash in southern Tennessee that killed at least five young children was going too fast at the time of the crash, authorities said Tuesday. Johnthony Walker, 24, was charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving, Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said.
Advertisement
He added that early reports from investigators indicate the bus, which was carrying 35 children home from Woodmore Elementary School, struck a utility pole, flipped on its side and struck a tree on Monday afternoon. The bus was wrapped around the tree and nearly torn in two.
Three fourth graders, a kindergartner and a first grader died in the crash, and 12 more were hospitalized, six of them in the hospital's intensive care units, Hamilton County School Superintendent Kirk Kelly said.
Investigators say Walker was traveling above the speed limit at the time of the crash, first swerving right and hitting a mailbox and elevated driveway -- then left and hitting the pole and the tree.
"Based on witness statements and physical evidence, the defendant was driving the school bus at a high rate of speed, well above the posted speed limit of 30 mph," Walker's arrest warrant affidavit states.
Fletcher said authorities issued a warrant to have the event recorder removed from the bus and to review video evidence. The National Transportation Safety Board said a team would arrive in Chattanooga on Tuesday to investigate the crash. The bus remained in place in Chattanooga's Brainerd neighborhood on Monday night.
"'Mama, I love you. I have been in a drastic accident,'" Walker's mother, Gwenevere Cook, said her son told her in the moments after the crash. "He texted me minutes later saying the kids are dead."
"He is a marvelous son. For two years he worked two jobs. He's never been in trouble before," she added. "He is a respected young man, grew up in Chattanooga and is liked by everyone."
