Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
School bus driver arrested as city mourns five children
By JONATHAN MATTISE
Associated Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A
school bus driver was behind bars
Tuesday after a crash killed five
youngsters and plunged Chatta-
nooga into mourning over what the
mayor called the “most unnatural
thing in the world” — a parent
losing a child.
Police said Johnthony Walker,
24, was speeding along a narrow,
winding road Monday afternoon
with 35 elementary school students
aboard when he wrapped the bus
around a tree. Walker was arrested
and charged with five counts of
vehicular homicide.
Reeling from the tragedy, Chat-
tanoogans lined up to donate blood,
created a memorial of flowers and
stuffed toys at the crash scene.
At an evening prayer vigil, a
local church overflowed and a
gospel choir cried out in booming
song. Preachers and officials spoke
of grief, strength and faith.
Children the same age as those
who died were talking, getting antsy
and playing a little in the capaci-
ty-filled lobby. Reality intruded,
though, as an usher walked a tearful
woman through the crowd. “This
woman needs a seat. She lost her
daughter,” he said.
Parents who send their children
off to school every day struggled
to come to grips with the shock and
break the news to their loved ones.
“It’s real tough, said Dujuan
Butchee, whose daughters, Jamya
and Janesa, are eighth-graders who
used to go to the same school as
the youngsters killed in the wreck.
“It’s tough on my kids because they
know some of the victims as well.”
Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP
A tarp covers a section of the wreckage the day after a school
bus accident, Tuesday, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Johnthony Walker,
24, the bus driver, who authorities say was speeding, was arrested
and charged with vehicular homicide in the deaths of five children.
Walker is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 29 to face charges
that also include reckless driving and reckless endangerment.
Butchee said it wasn’t the first
time he heard about a bus speeding:
“I think it should wake up more bus
drivers to be more cautious because
you’re dealing with a lot of kids’
lives.”
Police said Walker was driving
well over the posted 30 mph limit
when he lost control of the bus,
which was not equipped with seat
belts. He was jailed on $107,500
bail for a court appearance Nov. 29
on charges that included reckless
driving and reckless endangerment.
It was not immediately known
whether he had a lawyer.
The hospital said 12 children
remained hospitalized Tuesday: six
in critical condition and six stable.
Dr. Darvey Koller, a pediatric
emergency room physician at
Children’s Hospital at Erlanger, said
identifying the students after the
crash was a lengthy process in some
cases.
“Many of them were scared
or too dazed to talk to us,” Koller
said at a news conference Tuesday.
“Because of their young age, many
of them were unable to spell their
names, did not know their birthdays
or even their parents’ names —
several said ‘Momma’ when they
were asked what their name was.”
Hospital staff photographed each
child and showed the images to
teachers to figure out identities, he
said.
Three of the children killed were
in fourth grade, one was in first grade
and another in kindergarten, Kelly
said. Their families were notified,
but their names were not released.
All the children aboard went to
Woodmore Elementary School.
“The most unnatural thing in the
world is for a parent to mourn the
loss of a child,” Mayor Andy Berke
said. “There are no words that can
bring comfort to a mother or a
father. So today, the city is praying
for these families.”
Chattanooga middle-schooler
Armanie Bryant said: “They didn’t
get to live their lives. They didn’t
get married. They didn’t have no
kids, anything about their future.”
The National Transportation
Safety Board sent a team to inves-
tigate, and police obtained a warrant
to remove the bus’ black box, which
contains data on the vehicle’s move-
ments.
As the investigation got
underway, NTSB chairman Chris-
topher Hart said the agency will
look at such factors as the driver’s
actions, the condition of the bus,
and whether seat belts — something
the NTSB has been pushing for —
would have made a difference.
Craig Harris, a parent of two
children who were on the bus, told
ABC’s “Good Morning America”
that the bus driver sometimes drove
too fast.
“There has been times where
I’ve seen him going a little faster
than he probably should be going,”
Harris said. He said his daughter
and stepson were in shock and pain
after the crash.
Walker had an accident involving
property damage in September, and
his license was suspended for about
a month in 2014 for failure to show
proof of insurance, according to
state commercial driver records. He
appeared to have no criminal record
in Tennessee, authorities said.
Hamilton
County
School
District
spokeswoman
Amy
Kutcher declined to say whether
the district had received any
complaints involving Walker,
who was employed by an outside
bus contractor, Durham School
Services. She referred all questions
about his performance and that
of other Durham drivers to the
company.
“Legally, there is no way that
we could discipline someone who
is not our employee,” Kutcher said.
“We’ve got 192 Durham bus drivers.
Obviously, this is a bad one.”
Durham CEO David A. Duke
issued a statement on Twitter saying
the company was “devastated” by
the accident and working with police
and school officials to investigate.
Company officials did not return
calls and emails seeking comment.
Durham has had other drivers
who have run into legal trouble in the
school district that includes Chatta-
nooga, according to news reports.
Last year, one driver pleaded guilty
to aggravated statutory rape, and
another was arrested on child-porn
possession charges. Both were fired.
Durham, based in Warrenville,
Illinois, operates about 13,700
vehicles around the U.S. and has
nearly as many drivers, according
to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration. It had a “satisfac-
tory” safety rating from the agency
in July 2015.
The company has had 346
crashes over two years, including
three resulting in deaths and 142
with injuries, federal figures show.
During that period, it had 53
incidents involving unsafe driving
violations.
PARKS: City working with schools to BMCC: Expansion will include boarding
for rodeo teams
create first summer recreation program and practice facilities
to develop horse culture John Turner, a port commis-
Continued from 1A
currently about three acres,
amenities include a gazebo
and youth baseball field,
but Pelleberg said the city
owns a total of 26 acres
there. He would like to add
a dog park, splash pad, extra
parking, more grass and
more trees. The centerpiece
of the greatly expanded park
would be a cluster of four
adult softball fields.
“We want to build a
good, functioning softball
complex that attracts tour-
nament play,” Pelleberg
said.
The city could also
attract soccer tournaments
that Hermiston doesn’t have
room for once it completes
its plan to add four more
soccer fields to the one that
is currently on Third Street
by the Columbia River.
Pelleberg said the soccer
field is the city’s most-used
green space. The city has
immediate plans to add a
second field and is working
to secure a lease from the
Army Corps of Engineers
for space to add the rest.
Over in the south hill
neighborhood, the city
owns property surrounding
the basketball courts across
from The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints
that it would like to turn into
a multi-use park. Concep-
tual drawings — which
Pelleberg said could change
— include tennis courts, a
BMX bike course, a race
course for remote-con-
trol cars, an airstrip for
remote-control planes and a
pond for model boat races.
At current city parks
like Nugent Park, Pelleberg
said the city would like to
work on replacing or adding
playground
equipment,
restrooms, picnic shelters,
barbecue pits and other
amenities. He said large,
modern parks can help
provide a higher quality of
life for residents and really
increase a town’s attractive-
ness.
“There’s a visual aspect of
parks, something that makes
a community look a little
different,” Pelleberg said.
He said right now the city
is being “very proactive”
about working to give the
community a positive image,
and “parks are a big part of
that.”
The city is also working
with
Umatilla
School
District to create the city’s
first summer recreation
program, which will begin
next summer.
Pelleberg said the time-
line for additions to parks
will depend on funding, but
he feels optimistic that the
city will win some of the
grants it is going after in the
spring, which could result in
construction in late 2017 or
early 2018.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Continued from 1A
other programs at the school,
Preus added.
The goals for FARM
Phase II include expanding
the school’s animal science
programming to include
equine health, reproduction
and management, as well
as boarding and practice
facilities for the livestock
judging and rodeo teams.
In the future, BMCC
would partner with the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
and horsemanship training
workshops, along with
hosting tribal rodeos and
powwow events.
“We wouldn’t want to
do it without a facility that
could draw students in,”
Preus said.
The port commission
voted unanimously to
commit $150,000 over five
years, contingent on whether
the project is included in the
state’s budget. Kim Puzey,
the port’s general manager,
is on the BMCC board and
sioner who will resign his
position at the end of the
year to become Pendleton’s
mayor, is the previous pres-
ident of BMCC.
Port commissioner Jerry
Simpson said the proposal
had his full support.
“There’s no better invest-
ment in economic devel-
opment than education,”
Simpson said.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
TM
FUZZBALL: Group also in need of donations
or help fundraising to cover veterinary fees
Continued from 1A
entirely on foster homes
instead of running a shelter.
The group is in desperate
need of more fosters who
don’t mind temporarily
hosting a kitten with a respi-
ratory infection or a dog with
an injured paw.
“That is huge,” Herriman
said. “We can’t take in
animals if they don’t have
somewhere to go.”
She said finances are also
a “challenge” and the group
could always use donations
or help fundraising. Most of
the money goes toward veter-
inary fees for not only helping
the animals, but also getting
them vaccinated, spayed/
neutered and microchipped
before they are adopted.
Herriman said she and her
husband have two dogs of
their own, as well as a couple
of cats that they meant to just
foster but ended up holding
on to. They also continue to
take in cats and dogs rescued
by Fuzzball off and on
throughout the year.
“I like my animals to have
little breaks, and us to have
little breaks,” she said.
Some of the foster
animals need some extra love
and care, but Herriman said
it is always a good feeling
to save the life of an animal
that may have otherwise been
euthanized for something as
fixable as a broken bone.
Once an animal is in good
enough health, the group
takes them to adoption events
like the nationwide one
recently hosted by PetSmart.
They also adopt animals out
directly or do transfers with
other rescue groups. Pictures
of the animals currently
available can be found on
the Fuzzball Animal Rescue
Facebook page or at www.
fuzzballrescue.com/adopt-
able-pets.
To inquire about adopting
a pet, donating, becoming a
foster or reporting an injured
stray, email fuzzballrescue@
gmail.com or send a message
through the group’s Facebook
page, which is monitored
daily. Donations can also be
given directly to Oregon Trail
Veterinary Clinic, which
provides the care for Fuzzball
animals.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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