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Friday, February 3, 2006

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NTSB discusses accident which killed seven children

LAKE BUTLER, Fla. (AP) -- A truck driver who plowed into a car at a school bus stop last week killing seven children had been awake for 34 hours, except for a short nap, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.

David Rayburn, the lead investigator for the Lake Butler crash, said the 31-year-old truck driver, Alvin Wilkerson, was refusing to talk to investigators about the accident.

"His attorney doesn't want him talking," Rayburn said.

Rayburn and Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Leeper refused to release the attorney's name.

Jack Peetz, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Crete Carrier Corp. of Lincoln, Neb., the trucking company Wilkerson drove for, issued a statement Friday afternoon.

"As the National Transportation Safety Board announced, its statements today were preliminary and its investigation will be on-going. Like the NTSB, our desire is to determine the cause of the accident," Peetz said.

Blood tests showed Wilkerson had not been using alcohol or drugs, Leeper said. Rayburn said Wilkerson was not using his cell phone at the time of the accident.

No charges have been filed against Wilkerson, although a criminal investigation continues.

Rayburn said fatigue was one of many factors being looked into it as the cause of the crash.

"He was driving quite a bit during those 34 hours," Rayburn said, adding that Wilkerson was making deliveries and loading and unloading his truck.

At the time of the crash, Wilkerson was driving a load of bottled water from High Springs to Jacksonville, a trip of about 85 miles.

The NTSB, using an identical school bus and truck, determined the school bus should have been visible for about 3,000 feet (more than half a mile) and there was some light skid marks before hitting the car and pushing it into the school bus.

The car burst into flames, killing all seven children, and forcing it under the school bus, with nine children aboard. Two children remain at Shands hospital in Gainesville on Friday in serious condition.

When asked when Wilkerson saw the bus, Rayburn said, "I don't know that he did."

Rayburn said both the bus driver, Lillie Godbolt, and the truck driver had valid commercial licenses. He noted that the driver of the car, Nikki Mann, was only 15, and had only a learners permit. She was talking on her cell phone when the truck hit the back of her car.

Sheriff Jerry Whitehead said the crash was not Nikki Mann's fault.

"Accidents happen. This was a tragedy. I don't believe Nikki was at fault at all. The truck driver ... plowed into them and killed them."

Rayburn said there were no mechanical problems with any of the vehicles involved and a recorder on the truck did not show the impact. Investigators don't know if a dog riding in Wilkerson's truck played any part in the collision.

The NTSB investigation is expected to take about a year, while the Florida Highway Patrol said it's criminal probe will take a matter of weeks.

This tiny Union County town has been in mourning since the crash last week.

On Monday, the four children of Terry and Barbara Mann were buried after a service at the First Christian Church in Lake Butler.

They were Cynthia Nicole "Nikki" Mann, 15, who was Terry Mann's biological daughter, and adopted children Elizabeth 15, Johnny, 13, and Heaven, 3. Twenty-month-old Anthony Lamb, who the Mann's were in the process of adopting, was remembered in services Thursday.

The couple's nieces, Ashley Keen, 13, and Miranda Finn, were buried in Hawthorne on Wednesday, next to the body of William Edwin Scott, 70, the grandfather of the seven children, who died of a heart attack after hearing about the accident.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)