Witnesses describe fatal bus crash; probe continues

By Kristi E. Swartz and Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two construction workers who were among the first on the scene of Monday's fatal school bus crash in Carroll County said students were piled on top of each other inside the overturned bus.

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Channel 2 Action News The accident happened just before 2 p.m. on Highway 113 near Hog Liver Road.

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"We heard a loud sound, like a boom, we turned around, and the bus was flying up in the air," said one of the workers, Jason Jennings. "We ran up to pull the kids off the bus. There was a lot of hollering."

His co-worker, Terry Butler, recalled opening the rear door on the bus, "looking in there and there were people piled up on top of each other. It was a wreck, it was bad. I saw one guy under the bus. He was the deceased."

Fourteen students were riding the bus from Temple High School to a nearby vocational school Monday afternoon when the bus went off the right side of Highway 113, across a driveway, into a culvert and then into a ditch. The crash killed James Rashawn Walker, 17, an aspiring graphic designer who played on Temple High's football team, and injured the other 13 students.

A candlelight vigil has been scheduled for 8 p.m. at Temple High's football field, according to information from the Carroll County School's superintendent's office. The school and community also has adopted a theme of "stay strong," according to the superintendent's office.

Several of the injured students were released from the hospital, while the others were in good, stable or fair condition.

The new bus was equipped with a video camera. Police plan to review the recording in addition to interviewing witnesses, the bus driver and surviving passengers to determine why the bus ran off the road and flipped, according to Georgia State Patrol Sgt. Justin Howard.

The bus driver, Kenneth Ross Herringdine, 59, of Roopville, is a trainee with a valid commercial driver's license. An experienced driver was on board teaching Herringdine, Howard said.

Howard said the bus overturned after Herringdine tried to steer it back onto the road.

The video footage might reveal what caused the bus to leave the roadway.

"That's pretty much the question right now," Howard said.

-- Staff photographer Bob Andres contributed to this report.