This has been a dreadful story–anyone with parents and even those without are affected.. Children dying in a bus accident right before Thanksgiving.
I have purposely kept a self-imposed news blackout going on this story, knowing only headlines but not subjecting myself to reading anything but that.
Until today – I have to report this information..
According to one report, as the bus driver sped around a turn before the accident, he apparently asked the children if they were ready to die..Michael Walsh at Yahoo News reporting:
The driver, Johnthony Walker, 24, was arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving for the crash on the winding road.
As the city mourns, chilling reports have emerged alleging that Walker asked the students, “Are y’all ready to die?” before swerving off the road into a tree.
Jasmine Mateen, the mother of three children aboard the bus, lost her 6-year-old daughter in the crash. She told CBS News what one of her other children had to say about the driver.
“My daughter said right before the bus flipped that he was speeding around the curve and asked them ‘Are y’all ready to die?’” Mateen said to CBS correspondent Mark Strassmann.
And more..
She also said she had complained about Walker’s behavior many times since August, but nothing had been done to redress her grievances. The private bus company involved has had 36 crashes with injuries in Tennessee alone since 2014, the Tennessean newspaper reported.
Authorities have not confirmed Mateen’s statements.
Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said at a press conference late Monday that the type of accident to which his department and others were responding is “every public safety professional’s worst nightmare.”
The information is obviously under investigation.. as are all of the other circumstances of this bus crash. But it’s troubling to see this.. it’s horrendous to imagine what these families are going through. I cannot fathom it.. I am sending my love and prayers, my virtual hugs and every bit of joy and love I can conjure in my mind for those who perished in this accident and the remaining families members now attempting to cope with the heartbreak..
