At hearing in fatal bus wreck
Investigator Joe Warren
Johnthony Walker, attorney Amanda Dunn and District Attorney Neal Pinkston
The city police department's lead traffic investigator testified Thursday that Johnthony Walker was driving a school bus well above the speed limit on a curvy road when six children were killed.
Joe Warren said the speed limit on Talley Road is 30 mph and 20 mph on curves. He said Walker was driving at 50-52 mph when the bus went out of control.
It was also testified that interviews have begun of some of the 37 children who were on the bus. The interviews are being conducted through a trained specialist at the Child Advocacy Center. They are done only with the permission of the parents.
Five vehicular homicide charges as well as reckless endangerment and reckless driving counts were bound to the Grand Jury against the 24-year-old Walker. A sixth vehicular homicide charge is to be added later.
General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom said, "I find his conduct to be reckless. He was clearly driving way over the speed limit."
Walker remains in jail on the same bond.
Investigator Warren said video shows Walker with a cell phone while children were on the bus, which he said is in violation of state law. Defense attorney Amanda Dunn said it was while the bus was not moving when a student asked to get off the bus and then returned a couple of minutes later.
She said the "black box" from the bus showed a top speed of 37 mph. Investigator Warren said that could have been miles back and was not reliable.
He said soon after he arrived at the scene on his motorcycle he spotted a "yawl" mark near the rear of a fire vehicle. He said, "I knew right away that I had high speed and, if that was all I had, I would be confident going to trial."
He added, "I knew right off the bat that I was dealing with a vehicle that was going too fast."
He said the rate he was driving "was reckless for that large a vehicle."
The witness said Walker was at the scene for a short while, but he had been transported to police headquarters. He said, "I wanted to keep him separate from the families at the scene."
He said Walker refused to talk to him. He was arrested at 9:51 p.m.
Investigator Warren said of Talley Road, "It is very narrow and winding. It has a lot of hills and curves."
He said a three-dimension scanner was used to make a detailed study of how the wreck occurred.
It showed, he said, that the bus started to careen out of control as it went down a hill toward Sunset Drive. It almost went off the roadway there, but went on up the hill and clipped a mailbox. Then it went into the front yard of 318 Talley Road while striking a utility pole and then coming to rest against a tree.
He said the vehicle began to roll toward its side at the top of the hill. He said witnesses reported that the tires were still spinning after the vehicle came to rest.
There was no indication of any brakes being applied, he stated.
Investigator Warren said there were three cameras on the bus - one aimed at the door where students entered and left, another looking back toward the students and a third looking from the rear toward the front of the bus.
He said, "The video was very disturbing. I don't know how much you want me to go into that."
Attorney Dunn noted that the video shows Walker climbing out the front window and helping a couple of students off the bus. At one point he ran around to the rear of the bus.
He said the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting its own investigation.
He said cell phone records from Walker were obtained, and investigators are going through 1,400 pages of data.
The witness said there was no indication that Walker encountered any other vehicles at the time of the wreck. He said a motorist behind the bus did not report seeing any.
Investigator Adam Cavitt said four students died at the scene of the Nov. 21 wreck. Two died later at the hospital.
He said a blood test of the driver was negative for alcohol or drugs.
The witness said the entire traffic division came to the scene.