CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- A school bus driver was behind bars Tuesday after a crash killed five youngsters. The mayor of Chattanooga said the crash had caused the "most unnatural thing in the world" -- a parent losing a child.
Police said Johnthony Walker, 24, was speeding along a narrow, winding road Monday afternoon with 35 elementary school students aboard when the bus left the road and struck a tree. Walker was arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide.
Police said Walker was driving over the posted 30 mph limit when he lost control of the bus, which was not equipped with seat belts. He was jailed with bail set at $107,500 and a court appearance set next week on charges that included reckless driving and reckless endangerment. It was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer.
Reeling from the disaster, Chattanoogans lined up to donate blood and created a memorial of flowers and stuffed toys at the crash scene.
The five children killed were identified by family members as Zoie Nash, 9; Cordayja Jones, 9; and D'Myunn Brown, 6; Zyanna Harris, 10; and Zyaira Mateen, 6. Chattanooga police declined to confirm the identities of the children because they were minors.
All the children aboard went to Woodmore Elementary School.
At an evening prayer vigil, a local church overflowed and a gospel choir cried out in booming song. Preachers and officials spoke of grief, strength and faith.
"The most unnatural thing in the world is for a parent to mourn the loss of a child," Mayor Andy Berke said. "There are no words that can bring comfort to a mother or a father. So today, the city is praying for these families."
Chattanooga middle-schooler Armanie Bryant said: "They didn't get to live their lives. They didn't get married. They didn't have no kids, anything about their future."
Parents who send their children off to school every day struggled to come to grips with the shock and break the news to their loved ones.
"It's real tough," said Dujuan Butchee, whose two daughters are eighth-graders and used to go to the same school attended by the youngsters killed in the wreck. "It's tough on my kids because they know some of the victims, as well."
Butchee said it wasn't the first time he heard about a bus speeding: "I think it should wake up more bus drivers to be more cautious because you're dealing with a lot of kids' lives."
The hospital said 12 children remained hospitalized Tuesday: six in critical condition and six stable.
Dr. Darvey Koller, a pediatric emergency room physician at Children's Hospital at Erlanger, said identifying the students after the crash was a lengthy process in some cases.
"Many of them were scared or too dazed to talk to us," Koller said at a news conference Tuesday. "Because of their young age, many of them were unable to spell their names, did not know their birthdays or even their parents' names -- several said 'Momma' when they were asked what their name was."
Hospital staff photographed each child and showed the images to teachers to figure out identities, he said.
Police reports show that Walker was involved in another car crash two months ago. In that crash, he was driving his bus into a curve the afternoon of Sept. 20 when he swiped the side of a car heading the opposite direction.
Nobody was injured in the earlier crash, according to the report, and only minor damage marked both vehicles. The report does not say whether Walker was driving too fast when he crossed the centerline.
Walker worked for Durham School Services, an Illinois-based company contracted to run the school district's busing services.
Durham CEO David Duke issued a statement on Twitter saying the company was "devastated" by the accident and working with police and school officials to investigate. Company officials did not return calls and emails seeking comment.
Durham operates about 13,700 vehicles around the U.S. and has nearly as many drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. It had a "satisfactory" safety rating from the agency in July 2015.
The company has had 346 crashes over two years, including three resulting in deaths and 142 with injuries, federal figures show. During that period, it had 53 incidents involving unsafe driving violations.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate Monday's crash, and police obtained a warrant to remove the vehicle's black box, which contains data on bus movements.
As the investigation got underway, board Chairman Christopher Hart said the agency will look at such factors as the driver's actions, the condition of the bus, and whether seat belts -- something the agency has been pushing for -- would have made a difference.
Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Mattise, Rebecca Reynolds Yonker and Erik Schelzig of The Associated Press and by Shelly Bradbury, Kendi A. Rainwater, David Cobb and Tyler Jett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
A Section on 11/23/2016