A school bus driver has been arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving after he crashed into a tree with 35 children on board, killing five.
The incident happened on Monday at Chattanooga Tennessee, United States and authorities are trying to unravel the cause and motive behind the accident, which they called, ‘every professional’s worst nightmare.’
The driver of the bus, Johnthony Walker, 24, was said to have repeatedly asked the pupils, ‘ Are you all ready to die?’ before swerving off the road into a tree, killing five and injuring 31 others.
A CBS News report said that 23 pupils were taken to area hospitals, and 12 were still there as of Tuesday evening, with six in critical condition.
“Many of them were scared or too dazed to talk to us,” Dr. Darvey Koller of the Children’s Hospital at Erlanger said at a news conference.
Jasmine Mateen, a mother who lost her six-year-old daughter in the crash, told CBS News that her “daughter said right before the bus flipped that he was speeding around the curve and asked them ‘Are y’all ready to die?’”
She also said she had complained about Walker’s behaviour many times since August, but nothing had been done to redress her grievances.