Driver And Trucking Company Indicted In Fatal Crash That Killed Five Georgia Southern University Nursing Students!

Two indictments have been bequeathed in the case against the truck driver involved in the deadly crash that killed five GSU nursing students and the trucking company he works for.

Of the nine counts, 56-year-old John Wayne Johnson was indicted on, five counts were of first-degree vehicular homicide, reckless driving and serious injury by vehicle, besides one for not operating with due care. The Mississippi-based company Johnson works for, Total Transportation was not sparred either and was indicted on five counts including first-degree vehicular homicide, criminal responsibility of corporations and fatal injury by vehicle.

The noxious crash cropped up on April 22, last year when seven young women were on the way to Savannah, travelling in two cars for their final clinical of the school year.

Five students including 20-year-old Emily Clark (Powder Springs), 20-year-old Morgan Bass (Leesburg), 21-year-old Abbie Deloach (Savannah), 21-year-old Catherine "McKay" Pittman (Alpharetta) and 21-year-old Caitlyn Baggett (Millen) passed away, while two others who were fatally injured, managed to survive the crash: Loganville's Megan Richards and Reidsville's Brittney McDaniel survived the crash, AJC reported.

All seven girls were students in the nursing school at Georgia Southern University.

According to the indictments, Total Transportation employed Johnson despite been fully aware of him being a rough driver, and thus leading to the disastrous crash. Moreover, Johnson had been dismissed from a couple of other trucking companies before joining Total Transportation.

Following the incident, Johnson has confessed under oath to texting when the fatal pileup happened. He also admitted that messages he received included images of a bare-skinned woman, as his vehicle was brimming with pornography, WSAV reported.

Bryan Co. Sheriff noted that Johnson has not yet turned himself in.

A Channel 2-led investigation by Aaron Diamant scrutinised federal records for Total Transportation; divulging alarming facts about the company drivers. According to Channel 2 investigator report (via Action News Jax), the federal records indicated that the company drivers have been penalised on an alarming 266 occasions; all for unsafe driving violations.

But that's not all, Diamant also discovered that the trucking company had been reported over 100 times for speeding, 45 times the company had been cited for ignoring traffic control devices, nine times for driving while using a mobile phone, and five time for following very closely.