ATLANTA (AP) – A grand jury has indicted a tractor-trailer driver and his employer accused of causing a fiery interstate crash that killed five Georgia Southern University nursing students.
The Bryan County grand jury on Wednesday indicted John Wayne Johnson of Shreveport, Louisiana, on nine counts and truck company Total Transportation on seven counts in the April 22, 2015 crash. A tractor-trailer on Interstate 16 slammed into the students’ car during stop-and-go traffic backed up by an unrelated wreck.
The victims included Amber DeLoach, Emily Clark, Caitlyn Baggett, McKay Pittman and Morgan Bass. All of the women who died were between 20 and 21 years old.
Johnson and Total Transportation of Mississippi were charged with five counts of homicide by vehicle in the first degree and serious injury by vehicle, the indictment stated. Johnson was also charged with one count of reckless driving, one count of failure to exercise due care and one count of following too closely.
Total Transportation is also separately charged with one count of serious injury by vehicle in the first degree and one count of criminal responsibility of corporations. A second indictment seeks to hold Total Transportation criminally responsible under a Georgia law that allows charges to be brought against corporations.