Grieving Parents, Students Speak About Fatal School Bus Crash in Chattanooga
Jasmine Mateen said three of her four daughters were on the bus when it crashed.
— -- Parents and students are mourning the loss of six young children who were killed this week in a school bus crash in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Jasmine Mateen said three of her four daughters were on the bus when it crashed at around 3:20 p.m. local time on Monday. Two of them were released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon, but the other, 6-year-old Zyaira, died at the scene.
"I knew my baby was gone. When [I] saw the bus, I instantly got that feeling," Mateen told ABC affiliate WTVC.
Mateen said she had previously complained about the bus driver, identified as 24-year-old Johnthony Walker, to school officials.
"I’ve been calling the school since the first day," Mateen told WTVC. "Nobody’s returning my call."
Police said Walker is in custody and has been charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, as well as reckless endangerment and reckless driving. He is being held on $107,500 bond, according to The Associated Press. He is due to appear in court on Nov. 29. Police said that Walker is represented by an attorney, but were unable to confirm the attorney's name to ABC News. It is unclear if he has entered a plea.
According to the affidavit of complaint obtained by ABC News, police said Walker was driving above the 30 mph speed limit on Talley Road, a narrow, winding road. Walker lost control of the bus and swerved off the roadway to the right, striking an elevated driveway and a mailbox. Walker then swerved to the left and the school bus began to roll over, striking a telephone pole and wrapping around a tree, the affidavit stated.
Police said they have issued a warrant to remove the black box from the school bus and review evidence on the bus video cameras.
The bus had just departed from Woodmore Elementary School and was carrying 37 children when it crashed. The school bus was not equipped with passenger seatbelts, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.
According to interim superintendent Kirk Kelly of the Hamilton County Department of Education, three of the children who died were fourth-graders, one was a first-grader and the other was in kindergarten. Four of the victims were girls.
Officials said the 32 survivors have been accounted for. About two dozen of them were taken to the hospital for critical and non-critical injuries sustained in the fatal crash. Twelve children remained hospitalized as of Tuesday night, with six still in critical condition and another six in stable condition, according to doctors from Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.
The doctors said the injured children have received donations of teddy bears and pizza deliveries called in from as far as Ohio.
Two friends, 10-year-old Treamail Watson and 8-year-old Darrien Griffith, were among the survivors. They described to ABC News what they saw during the horrifying crash.
"He started turning real fast around the curb and he hit a speed bump," Griffith said of the bus driver. "He hit a mail box and a garbage can and then that’s when the tree hit, went through the bus."
The boys said the bus flipped over twice.
"It felt like the world was turning upside down," Watson told ABC News. "I heard a big bang."
After the crash, the boys said they tried to help their wounded classmates get out of the smashed vehicle.
"I helped, but a lot of them died," Watson said.
"Everybody started screaming when they got out," Griffith added. "One was bleeding real bad and it was one of my classmates."
Carina Noble, a spokeswoman for the bus company, said in a statement, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the students and families who are affected."
"Because this is an active investigation, we are unable to answer any questions at this time as we work with authorities," she added.
One father, Craig Harris, told ABC’s "Good Morning America" that his daughter, stepson and niece were all involved in the accident.
"My daughter and my stepson, they're in a lot of pain and a little bit of shock still, but for the most part, they're fine," Harris said during an interview Tuesday. "My niece, she’s in recovery this morning. She just got out of surgery about an hour ago and they're just keeping a close eye on her."
Harris said his niece's injuries were so severe that doctors said she was at risk of losing an arm because of a torn vein that had to be replaced.
"She's looking at a long road of recovery and a lot more surgeries, but she's here," he said.
ABC News' Jeffrey Cook, Joshua Hoyos, David Kerley, Whitney Lloyd and Natasha Rudnick contributed to this report.