Officer: Chattanooga bus driver was going 20 mph over speed limit

CHATTANOOGA — A school bus that crashed last month, killing six Chattanooga elementary students just days before Thanksgiving, was going approximately 20 miles over the speed limit at the time, a police officer testified Thursday.

Chattanooga Police Officer Joe Warren outlined the investigation that led to the arrest of the driver, Johnthony Walker, during a 90-minute court hearing.

He said police estimated the bus’ speed at between 48 and 52 mph. The speed limit on the road was 30 mph. Warren also revealed in his testimony that there were three video cameras that recorded the inside of the bus.

"The videos are very disturbing, and I don't want to describe a whole lot," said the 21-year department veteran, who estimated he'd investigated hundreds of deadly wrecks involving cars and commercial trucks. The Nov. 21 incident was his first fatal crash involving a school bus, he said.

Walker is seen using his cellphone while children were on the bus while it was parked, according to Warren's testimony. Police are sifting through 1,400 pages of Walker’s cellphone records for more information.

After the hearing, Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Lila Statom found there was enough probable cause to send the case to a grand jury. Statom, a judge since 2012, grew up in Chattanooga and is a former prosecutor, according to the state courts office.

Walker, 24, was initially charged by police with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving. The grand jury can change those counts, add others or decline to bring an indictment against Walker. It's a process that could take weeks or months.

About a dozen family members of the victims attended the hearing. One woman sobbed as Warren described the speed of the bus, which federal investigators had previously said was not on its designated route at the time.

Walker remains in custody and is represented by attorney Amanda B. Dunn, who argued Thursday that there were different accounts of how fast the bus was going at the time.

"There's a whole lot that we don't know at this time," she said. She did not comment to a pack of reporters after the hearing.

In questioning with Dunn, Warren confirmed that Walker helped at least two students off the bus after the crash.

The crash rocked Chattanooga, but nowhere so much as the city's working-class Brainerd neighborhood, where the families of the elementary students were left to grieve loved ones' deaths.

Six children died: 10-year-old Zyanna Harris, 9-year-old Cor'Dayja Jones, 9-year-old Zoie Nash, 8-year-old Keonte Wilson, 6-year-old D'Myunn Brown and 6-year-old Zyaira Mateen.

More than 20 of the 37 students on the bus at the time were injured. Another police officer, Master Patrolman Adam Cavitt, testified Thursday that two children remained hospitalized.

Police said at the time Walker was driving on Talley Road when the bus tipped, slammed into a utility pole and wrapped around a tree. That is where the first witnesses found the bus, turned onto its side, wheels still spinning, Warren said. Cavitt said Walker was not intoxicated.

Talley Road is a curving, two-lane street with rolling hills about a 15-minute drive from downtown. The only hint that a tragedy occurred there last month are blue and gold bows affixed to power poles.

Warren was off duty that day, a Monday. But when he was called about 3:30 p.m., he was on the scene in an hour. He said he did not sleep for two days while the Chattanooga Police Department's traffic division investigated the cause of the crash.

Skid marks on the road, which Warren said showed the bus tires were slipping sideways, told him the rig was going too fast on the curve, at least 48 mph, he said. Those skid marks alone showed the driver's recklessness, Warren said, and so he arrested Walker.

"If that’s all I had going to trial, I’d still be comfortable with it," he told Dunn, the defense lawyer.

As the city mourned, it came to light that students had complained about Walker's driving before, and the private company he worked for, Durham School Services, based in Warrenville, Ill., had a history of crashes in Tennessee. That track record also is outlined in several civil lawsuits family members of the crash victims have filed in Hamilton County Circuit Court.

And the engine control module in Walker's bus, commonly known as a black box, recorded three sudden deceleration events in the week before the crash, according to Warren.

"It showed several incidents of speeding up and slowing down rapidly, but those were not related to this crash," he said.

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• Police: A sixth child has died after bus crash
• Driver charged in fatal bus crash
• Mourning and healing again for Chattanooga
• Bus company had 36 injury crashes in Tennessee since 2014
• Students complained about erratic driving before fatal bus crash
• First lawsuit filed in connection with Chattanooga bus crash
• Lawmaker: Tennessee needs seatbelt requirement for school buses

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @sbarchenger.