GUILTY TN - Six elementary students killed in Chattanooga school bus crash, 21 Nov 2016

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Just reading this...so heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. Those children who died yesterday...forever remembered. Those other children on the bus...forever changed. Those families who've lost their child...forever broken. School faculty and others in current despair. May they all have all the support they need and more. This is devastating. Tears.
 
Woodmoore Elementary is a Title 1 school, meaning they have a large percentage of their families in or near poverty. The school website links a "Woodmore Fund" for the families for medical bills, funeral expenses, etc., and it looks very well run.

The school looks wonderful - prayers for their community as they come to grips with this horribly sad accident.
 
It looks like Google Maps has already removed the area from their street view. I was looking at conditions on the roadway, to see if there were bends or obstructions and there is an area at Talley and Midwoode for some reason you can't see. Like Google did in the Newsome/Christian murders, also in Tennessee.
 
Heard the breaking news last night with few details. Learned this morning that driver might have done this on purpose :stormingmad: Thoughts and prayers for the parents, families, and friends of the children who were killed. Healing prayers for the injured and surviving students who witnessed this horrific scene.

CBS radio report: Mother of the bus driver already making excuses for her son - never been in trouble, well-liked, hard-working :rolleyes:
 
http://abc7chicago.com/news/kids-wh...-bus-crash-include-3-fourth-graders-/1618930/

A school bus driver, Johnthony Walker, 24, has been charged in connection to a crash that killed five young children in Tennessee. Police confirmed Tuesday morning that the bus was traveling at a high rate of speed, "well above the posted speed limit."

Of the five deaths, interim superintendent Kirk Kelly of the Hamilton County Department of Education told reporters this morning, three of the children were in fourth-grade, one was in first-grade and the other was a kindergartner, officials said.
Click to expand...

Six children are still in intensive care.
 
It seems to me that might have been a REALLY, REALLY unfortunate and coincidental choice of words. It sounds like he was driving very recklessly, and said that to seem like a wild crazy guy.
 
JeannaT said:
It seems to me that might have been a REALLY, REALLY unfortunate and coincidental choice of words. It sounds like he was driving very recklessly, and said that to seem like a wild crazy guy.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but why speed and drive really recklessly with a bus full of little children? It makes no sense.
 
My two cents here. A 24 year old doesn't have enough driving experience to handle a bus full of kids...period! If he did do this on purpose, there is no punishment fitting for him.

Prayers to all these families and for those babies still fighting to live in intensive care.
 
katydid23 said:
Maybe, but why speed and drive really recklessly with a bus full of little children? It makes no sense.
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It makes zero sense at all, I agree. But I really don't think this man intended to kill the children - just intended to do something very very stupid.

It's so rare for bus drivers - in my observation - to be careless. That's why riding a bus to school is statistically a very safe way to get there.

This guy seems young to be a bus driver - he's still in the demographic that car insurance companies charge a premium for. I wonder if the school district had a hard time recruiting bus drivers and couldn't be more selective than this in hiring?
 
JeannaT said:
It looks like Google Maps has already removed the area from their street view. I was looking at conditions on the roadway, to see if there were bends or obstructions and there is an area at Talley and Midwoode for some reason you can't see. Like Google did in the Newsome/Christian murders, also in Tennessee.
Click to expand...

Help me understand why Google would do that. I don't see the necessity...but I'm assuming there is one. Shed light on it for me, please.

So heartbreaking. I really hope this was not on purpose. That is just too awful to think about. We need to have trust that people are not willfully harming our children.
 
Police said the driver of the bus, Walker, was arrested and a warrant has been issued to remove the black box from the bus and review evidence on the bus’ video cameras. Kelly said Tuesday morning the school would cooperate with the investigation.

[...]

According to the affidavit, "the defendant was driving the school bus at a high rate of speed, well above the posted speed limit of 30MPH," based on both witness statements and physical evidence.

http://www.kgfw.com/national-news/2...school-bus-crash-include-three-fourth-graders

Police say Walker cooperated with authorities and is in custody. They haven’t revealed how long he’s worked for Woodmere Elementary School. Walker graduated from Brainerd High School in 2011, a public high school in Chattanooga.

http://www.wyff4.com/article/tips-for-driving-safely-this-winter/8349456

Names of those killed have not yet been released; three were in the fourth grade, one was in first grade and one was in kindergarten.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/11...dy-to-die-before-crashing-bus-in-chattanooga/

"He was going real fast and he hit a garbage bag," one of the children who was onboard told CNN affiliate WDEF-TV. "And we then hit a mailbox, then we flipped over and hit a tree real hard."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/22/us/tennessee-chattanooga-school-bus-accident/
 
Holy everything I really hope this wasn't purposeful! What the actual freak? That's awful!

On the seatbelt issue, I taught preschool for years and we had 5 point harnesses on every single child. Did it take time? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes. Was it annoying and back breaking bending over to buckle all those wiggly worms? Yep.

I was tiny when I was a kindergartener and rode the bus to school. If he went over big bumps sometimes my head would hit the ceiling of the bus and it scared me half to pieces. I don't care how padded the seats are the ceiling isn't.

Eta: I keep thinking about Otto from the Simpsons.
 
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