A distraught mother from Chattanooga said on Tuesday that she complained for months about the dangerous school bus driver that killed five children, including one of her daughters on Monday.
The driver, Johnthony Walker, 24, taunted students from Woodmore
Elementary School by “slamming on breaks on purpose, making all of the
kids hit their heads,” said Jasmine Mateen to local NBC affiliate WRCB.
When Mateen was called in and informed that her daughter had been
killed in an accident, she reminded school officials that she had
previously complained about Walker’s reckless driving.
“I’ve been calling y’all since August,” Mateen said she told them. “I
said, ‘Now y’all doing what y’all supposed to been doing now that it’s
too late … Y’all doing what y’all supposed to be doing, but my baby
laying in a cold freezer.'”
Mateen nearly two of her other children who were injured in the accident as well.
When Mateen was first told by her children about Walker’s reckless
driving, she took her complaint to the Board of Education and the bus
company, Durham School Services and wrote a letter to the driver, which
the principal read aloud to the driver as several children watched.
His response? “So, I’d do it again.”
When Mateen saw her daughter’s body, she was shocked to see that she
had died with her mouth open, as if she was screaming, causing Mateen to
burst into tears.
The accident occurred when Walker lost control of the vehicle,
smacked into an elevated driveway and mailbox, which resulted in the
vehicle striking a utility pole and flipping on its side.
Witnesses who saw the accident said the driver appeared to be going faster than the 30 mph speed limit.
Walker has been charged with five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving.
Walker’s mom, Gwenevere Cook, called for compassion for her son, but called this horrific incident “God’s will.”
“Try a lot of love, compassion and understanding,” she told WRCB’s
Cameron Taylor. “I pray we all can just … get this some way without
judging my son. God don’t make mistakes. We do.”
“My heart of love is going out to all that were in harm’s way in this horrible accident of God’s will.”
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