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Truck driver charged in deadly Georgia crash due in court

FILE - In this April 22, 2015 file photo, a Georgia state trooper works the scene of a deadly crash in Ellabelle, Ga., west of Savannah. A hearing for John Wayne Johnson was scheduled for Thursday, July 14, 2016 in Bryan County Superior Court. Johnson, a truck driver from Shreveport, La., was indicted last month by a grand jury on criminal charges including five counts of first-degree vehicular homicide. The charges stem from the April 2015 crash on Interstate 16 west of Savannah that killed five nursing students from Georgia Southern University. Johnson was behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer that slammed into stop-and-go traffic stalled by an unrelated wreck.(AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
FILE - In this April 22, 2015 file photo, a Georgia state trooper works the scene of a deadly crash in Ellabelle, Ga., west of Savannah. A hearing for John Wayne Johnson was scheduled for Thursday, July 14, 2016 in Bryan County Superior Court. Johnson, a truck driver from Shreveport, La., was indicted last month by a grand jury on criminal charges including five counts of first-degree vehicular homicide. The charges stem from the April 2015 crash on Interstate 16 west of Savannah that killed five nursing students from Georgia Southern University. Johnson was behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer that slammed into stop-and-go traffic stalled by an unrelated wreck.(AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

By Associated Press 1 min read

PEMBROKE, Ga. (AP) – A Louisiana truck driver charged in a fiery interstate crash in Georgia that killed five nursing students last year is set to appear in court.

A hearing for John Wayne Johnson was scheduled for Thursday morning in Bryan County Superior Court. The 56-year-old truck driver from Shreveport, Louisiana, was indicted last month by a grand jury on criminal charges including five counts of first-degree vehicular homicide.

The charges stem from an April 2015 crash on Interstate 16 west of Savannah that killed five nursing students from Georgia Southern University. Johnson was behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer that slammed into stop-and-go traffic stalled by an unrelated wreck.

Prosecutors also had brought charges against Johnson’s employer, Total Transportation of Mississippi, but dropped that case in a settlement last week.