CHATTANOOGA SCHOOL BUS DRIVER HAD PRIOR ACCIDENTS BEFORE MONDAY’S FATAL WRECK

More startling facts have surfaced about the bus driver involved in the deaths of five children in Chattanooga Monday. Johnthony Walker has been charged with five counts of vehicular homicide in the school bus crash which killed four girls and one boy. According to the Tennessee Dept. of Safety & Homeland Security, Walker was involved in another bus crash in September when he turned a curve too widely and sideswiped another vehicle. Information that was returned in a TBI background check on Walker revealed that he had been involved in two crashes in the last two years before Monday’s wreck. The incident has also renewed the interest in seat belt usage on school buses. There is no federal law, nor a law in Tennessee, which mandates seat belts be on school buses. A team from the National Transportation Safety Board, along with TBI and Tennessee Highway Patrol Investigators continue their probes into the cause of the Monday’s wreck. Although Woodmore Elementary School, the home school to the students that were on the bus, was open Tuesday. The atmosphere was somber as grief counselors sought to give solace to students, faculty and staff. Classes are out beginning this morning for Thanksgiving break. Workers with United Way were also on hand for the families of those that needed them.