Police rope off the scene of an accident involving two school buses in Knoxville on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014.KNOXVILLE — An investigation into a fatal crash of two school buses last year in Knoxville indicates one of the drivers was reading a text message just before the wreck.
The Knoxville News Sentinel used a public records request to obtain documents from the six-month investigation by local, state and federal agencies into the Dec. 2 crash. The newspaper reported Tuesday that 48-year-old James Davenport looked up from his cell and saw a line of traffic stopped.
The driver of one of the stopped vehicles reported seeing Davenport jerk the bus to the left to avoid hitting her vehicle, sending the bus careening across the median and into oncoming traffic. Davenport’s bus slammed into another bus, flipping it.
Two students, ages 6 and 7, and a 46-year-old teacher’s aide were killed.