A school bus driver had no drugs or alcohol in his system when he careened off a road and smashed into a tree, killing five elementary schoolchildren, police said Wednesday.
Chattanooga Police Sgt. Austin Garrett said a toxicology test was performed on Johnthony Walker, 24, the bus driver now in jail on five vehicular homicide charges.
Police said Walker was driving well over the posted 30 mph limit when he lost control of the bus carrying 37 children on their way home from Woodmore Elementary School. Six children remain in the hospital.
Police disputed one woman’s claim that the driver asked the children if they were “prepared to die” just before the wreck. Jasmine Mateen, whose 6-year-old daughter was among the dead, said one of her two surviving children who were on the bus told her about the driver’s remarks.
Garrett, however, said at a Wednesday press conference: “I want to be very clear on this. No witness we have spoken with has that information or provided it directly to our investigators.”
He asked anyone with additional information to bring it to police, who are still interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage from the bus.
Three of the children killed were in fourth grade, one in first grade and another in kindergarten, said Kirk Kelly, interim superintendent of Hamilton County schools.
