NASHVLLE – Spurred by a deadly December 2014 tragedy in Knox County, Tennessee senators today cracked down on school bus drivers’ texting while driving, making it a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail for use of electronic devices while on the job.
“No parent should send their child off to school and that child not return to school because of a bus driver’s texting,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Becky Massey, R-Knoxville, told colleagues.
The bill also permanently revokes a driver’s ability to drive a school bus if they are texting or using electronic devices.
Massey’s bill ws prompted by the School bus driver James Davenport, 48, who according to news accounts was texting a prostitute while driving young children from Chilhowee Elementary when he swerved into oncoming traffic on Asheville Highway and struck another bus from Sunnyview Primary.
Two children and a teacher’s aide died. Months later, Davenport was found dead at his mother’s home. His death was attributed to natural causes, the Knoxville News Sentinel has reported.