Charges dropped against trucking company involved in deadly crash
Neima Abdulahi, WXIA 7:28 AM. EDT July 07, 2016
A Georgia prosecutor has announced criminal charges will be dropped against the trucking company involved in a crash that killed five local nursing students.
Tom Durden is the district attorney for southeast Georgia's Atlantic Judicial Circuit.
The trucking company, Total Transportation, has also agreed to spend $200,000 to establish a non-profit organization that would provide financial air for nursing students.
On April 2015, truck driver John Wayne Johnson plowed through cars stopped on Interstate 16 due to an earlier accident.
Troopers say Johnson failed to stop and crashed into two cars. Five Georgia Southern University nursing students died from the wreck.
Johnson admitted he was texting at the time. Records also show he’s been fired from two other trucking companies. Johnson also has a history of falling asleep at the wheel.
While criminal charges are dropped against the trucking company, the driver still faces charges.
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Trucker, company face homicide charges in death of nursing students
Truck driver, company indicted in fatal crash
Christopher Buchanan, WXIA 11:49 PM. EDT June 15, 2016
A driver and his company now face one count of homicide for each death in a wreck that killed five nursing students in southeast Georgia just over one year ago.
The news comes as the indictments were handed down by a Bryan County, Ga. Grand Jury on Wednesday.
WSAV reports that John Wayne Johnson was driving his tractor-trailer on I-16 when he crashed into another vehicle, killing Abbie DeLoach, Caitlyn Baggett, Emily Clark, Catherine McKay Pitt and Morgan Bass.
He faces five counts of homicide by vehicle in the first degree, one count of serious injury by vehicle, one count of reckless driving, one count of failure to exercise due care and one count of following too closely.
The company that Johnson was working for at the time, Total Transportation, was also indicted on five counts of homicide by vehicle in the first degree but also faces a count of criminal responsibility of corporations and serious injury by vehicle.
The indictment claims that Johnson was hired with knowledge that he was an unsafe driver.
WSAV reports that he had been fired from two previous trucking companies and that he had admitted to texting while driving when the crash happened.