Driver of fatal Carroll County school bus crash gets year probation

By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The mother of a Carroll County high school student killed last year in a school bus rollover said Tuesday she is "outraged" with the bus driver's punishment.

Kenneth Ross Herringdine, a trainee at the time of the Oct. 4, 2010 accident, was sentenced Tuesday to a year of probation and a $600 fine after pleading guilty to failing to maintain a lane as a part of a negotiated plea deal.

"My child is dead and this man still has his license," Diana Lockett told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I was expecting (him) at least to be charged with vehicular homicide."

Lockett's son, James Rashawn “Ray Ray” Walker, 17, was killed when the bus taking him from Temple High School school went off the road and overturned in a ditch.

Herringdine, school officials later admitted, was not certified to be driving students at the time of the accident.

Herringdine, 59, apologized in court Tuesday for Walker's death.

"Whatever I could have done to cause it not to happen, I would have," he said. "And I wished it would have been me instead of him."

Although Walker's parents hired an attorney to represent them, they only learned of the plea deal just before Herringdine's arraignment.

"It would’ve been a little bit kinder to (Walker's parents) to have told them before hand, not because they had an attorney there asking questions," their lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, said.

Bernstein said that in discussions several months ago with the Carroll County solicitor, she knew Herringdine wouldn't be charged with a felony.

"It's like they said it's OK that he killed my son," Lockett said. "I'm mad. I'm outraged."

More than a dozen people were rushed to various hospitals after the accident, but Walker was the only fatality, police said. The teen was partially ejected from the vehicle and was caught under it when it rolled.

“Carroll County Schools has worked coopertively with law enforcement and local agencies throughout the investigation,” schools spokeswoman Elena Schulenburg said in a statement. “We will continue to work with authorities on the outcome of the case as well.”

The bus had no obvious mechanical problems, and the driver was not suspected of using alcohol or drugs, police said at the time.

Herringdine had a valid commercial drivers license, and an experienced driver was on board teaching him.

Police said the bus overturned after the driver ran off Ga. 113, several miles south of I-20 near Hog Liver Road, and tried to steer back onto the road.

Three days after the accident, the Carroll County school system acknowledged that Herringdine lacked the state certification needed to drive a bus with students on board. Superintendent Scott Cowart said the school system misinterpreted regulations imposed by the state Department of Driver Services.

A subsequent investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution turned up school personnel records that showed Herringdine previously had two minor accidents and trouble keeping his bus in his lane.

Earlier the day of the fatal crash, Herringdine reported to a supervisor that he had run over a dog that morning while operating a bus with students on board.

On Sept. 22, 2010, Herringdine, while trying to park his bus, bumped the back of another bus. There were no students on board.

A note from Herringdine's trainer, Sheri Davis, described how the driver "veers out of his lane, crossing either white or the yellow lines a lot." Davis, who also was on the bus when it overturned, wrote that Herringdine "stops abruptly" and "needs to be conscious of speed!"

On his job application, Herringdine, who attended West Georgia College but didn't graduate, wrote that he had 30-plus years' experience driving a truck and more than 20 years' experience driving a bus. He answered no when asked whether he previously had been involved in a traffic accident in which he was at fault.

-- Staff writer David Ibata contributed to this article.