The school bus driver involved in a head-on crash that killed two students in Carroll County, Tennessee, made her first court appearance on Monday, October 26. Sabrina Ducksworth appeared in a Carroll County courtroom in Huntingdon to face two grand jury indictments tied to the March 27 collision.
Ducksworth told the court she could not afford to hire her own attorney, and the judge appointed a public defender. The attorney entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. She is due back in court on November 16, unless an agreement is reached before then.
Ducksworth was driving a Clarksville-Montgomery County School System bus carrying 24 Kenwood Middle School students and four adults on the day of the crash. The group was traveling to Jackson, Tennessee, for the Toyota Hub City Grand Prix at the Rockabillys Baseball Stadium. The event was organized by GreenpowerUSA, and family members said the students had built their own car to take part.
For reasons that remain unknown, the bus crossed the center line on Highway 70 and struck an oncoming dump truck and an SUV. Two students, Zoe Davis and Arianna Pearson, died in the crash. Ducksworth was seriously injured and taken to a hospital.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, most passengers on the bus had injuries ranging "from minor to serious." The agency said the two people in the dump truck suffered serious injuries, while the occupants of the SUV were not hurt.
Parents who were driving behind the bus to Jackson told investigators they saw Ducksworth swerve in and out of her lane several times during the trip. In the days after the crash, her family said they believed she had suffered a stroke.
The investigation produced three charges: vehicular homicide, failure to exercise due care, and failure to maintain her lane of traffic. Those charges went to the Carroll County Grand Jury, which returned indictments on the two traffic violations but not on vehicular homicide.
During Monday's hearing, the judge told Ducksworth's public defender that the two traffic counts would ordinarily be handled as citations, and that she would not normally have to appear, had they not come through grand jury indictments.
After the hearing ended and Ducksworth left the courtroom, two women became emotional and cried. It was unclear whether they were there on behalf of Ducksworth or of the students who were on the bus in March.
