Report indicates speed a factor in fatal Arkansas bus crash

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – An initial police report indicates a charter bus carrying elementary school-age football players from Tennessee was going too fast when it rolled off an Arkansas interstate last month and overturned, killing a 9-year-old and injuring at least 45 others.

A recently released Arkansas State Police crash report says the driver was exiting Interstate 30 near Benton, 25 miles east of Little Rock, on Dec. 3 when she applied her brakes. The report says the bus couldn’t slow before it left the roadway , struck a ditch and overturned.

The report notes “inattentive, careless, negligent or erratic” driving as a factor, but does not elaborate. A state police spokesman said Friday the crash is still under investigation and nothing has been forwarded to prosecutors seeking charges.

The children from the Orange Mound Youth Association in Memphis, Tennessee, were returning home from a football tournament in the Dallas area.