Report: Students In Fatal Bus Crash Were Afraid To Ride With Driver

CARROLL COUNTY, Ga.,None — Channel 2 has obtained the Georgia State Patrol report in a fatal Carroll County school bus crash, which says students were afraid to ride with the bus driver.

The driver, Kenneth Herringdine, was sentenced to 12 months of probation and a $600 fine Tuesday.

“I’m very sorry it happened. Whatever I could have done to cause it not to happen, I would have,” Herringdine said during sentencing.

The hearing was attended by the mother of James Rashawn “Ray Ray” Walker, a 17-year-old killed in the crash. She stormed out of the courtroom in tears. A crash survivors said Walker's death was unfair.

“It’s wrong. It’s just wrong,” Brittany Harper told Channel 2’s Diana Davis.

Harper was sitting next to Walker during the crash this fall.

“I remember bits and pieces of waking up on him, yelling for him, trying to get him to wake up, but I had that funny feeling that he was gone,” she said.

According to the GSP report, Herringdine had not completed six hours of required training and failed to maintain his lane, and students said he was asleep when they boarded the bus. Students told investigators they were afraid to ride with him.

“It just didn't feel right the way he was driving. He wouldn’t drive right, especially on dirt roads,” Harper told Davis.

The report also showed Herringdine had other accidents in his driving record. He once ran over a dog and hit another bus. He had no alcohol in his system but had been taking cough medicine, according to the report.

Herringdine's commercial driver's license has not been revoked. A representative for the state Department of Drivers Service told Davis the agency has no plans to pull the license.

WSBTV