The driver responsible for the fatal Carroll County school bus crash still works for the county’s school system, despite a rule saying he should have been fired.
The news came Wednesday as the parents of the teen killed in that tragic wreck sued the driver and the Carroll County School System for what they called a “needless” death.
“It could’ve been prevented,” Diana Lockett said. “My son didn’t have to die. Nobody deserves to lose their child at school.”
The parents of 17-year-old James Rashaun “Ray Ray” Walker on Wednesday said they wanted to send a message to the school system.
“I can’t hug my son anymore,” Antonio Walker said. “I want to get [the message] out there so that they’re scared to let it happen again.”
Rashaun Walker died on Oct. 4, when he was partially thrown through a window of the bus and crushed with a driver trainee behind the wheel.
Lockett and Antonio Walker lodged their civil complaint less than a month after an investigative report by the Georgia State Patrol revealed that the driver, Kenneth Ross Herringdine, was groggy from cough medicine when he drove the bus over a culvert and caused it to flip off the road.
“There is no question that James Rashaun Walker died a horrific and needless death,” the complaint reads, pointing to conditions leading to the wreck the suit claims were preventable. “James Rashaun Walker died an excruciating death, suffocating as he was being crushed to death by several tons of steel.”
School officials reserved a response to the lawsuit.
“In light of potential litigation, we have no comment at this time,” schools spokeswoman Elena Schulenburg said.
The parents’ attorney, B.J. Bernstein, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday she found it “bizarre” that Herringdine was still employed with the school system.
“If you’re employed by the school system, no one can approach him to interview him,” Bernstein said. “As a lawyer I can’t reach out to him” until he is subpoenaed to testify in court.
That’s why she said the family filed the lawsuit. They want answers.
“Normally, with a criminal case, the family feels like they got some resolution,” Bernstein said. “They got nothing. There’s been no accountability.”
School officials confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Herringdine was employed by the school system as a custodian at Mt. Zion High School.
But school system documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution pointed to a points-based policy instituted in July 2010 that counts points against drivers who have accidents, with 15 resulting in termination.
“We are instituting this points system because 23 of our 29 accidents were preventable,” the school board policy reads.
According to the vehicle accident penalty point system, an accident resulting in a fatality earns 15 points and termination.
Yet Herringdine continued to work for the school system after the accident.
“This smells of protectionism,” Bernstein said. “There are times when a lawsuit is about money. This one is about holding the school system accountable.”
In addition to Herringdine and the school system, the suit names former school superintendant John F. Zauner, who had retired before the accident but was in charge when Herringdine was hired, current superintendant Scott Cowart, and school transportation coordinator Denzil Rogers as defendants.
Walker’s was the only fatality, but more than a dozen students en route from Temple High School to a vocational school were injured after Herringdine lost control of the bus on Ga. 113 and overcorrected, causing it to begin to tumble, police and witnesses said.
The driver last month was sentenced to a year of probation and a $600 fine, which angered Walker’s mother.
“They just slapped him on the wrist and told him to go back to work,” Lockett said. “They stole something from me. They took my child, and it’s not right for them to just give him a $600 fine and tell him he can go on with his life.”
Bernstein complained the family was informed at the very last minute of the plea deal Herringdine had made with the Carroll County solicitor’s office.
“Were they more concerned about protecting their butts?” she asked about school officials.
The complaint claims Herringdine never should have been driving.
“The school system knew that Herringdine was not qualified to drive the school bus with young passengers where he had repeated issues in training and had failed to stay in the roadway along the very same route while driving an empty bus just days before,” the complaint reads.
“This tragedy could have been averted had the school system followed state regulations that set mandatory training guidelines and required school bus drivers to be certified before they transport students.”
Three days after the accident, the Carroll County School System acknowledged that Herringdine lacked the state licensing required to drive a bus carrying students. Then 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.
And the state investigation showed he ran over a dog the morning of the accident.
“He acted like he was sleepy or was on some medication,” Brianna Barger, 17, a student who was on the bus, said of Herringdine before the wreck. “I just wanted so bad to get off the bus.”
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