Doctor: Some school bus crash survivors 'too dazed to talk'

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The injured children were so young and frightened that many couldn't spell their names. Some couldn't remember their birthdays or their parents' names — just "Momma" when asked.

As survivors of a Chattanooga school bus crash began to arrive in the pediatric emergency room, Dr. Darvey Koller could see the devastation in their eyes.

"Many of them were scared or too dazed to talk to us," Koller said at a news conference Tuesday.

Thirty-five children had been riding on a bus police said was traveling too fast Monday afternoon when it veered off a narrow, winding road and crashed into a tree on the way home from elementary school.

Five children died in the crash. Twentythree were taken to area hospitals, where 12 remained Tuesday evening — six still in critical condition.

The process of identi- fying the injured moved slowly, Koller said, and Children's Hospital at Erlanger staff resorted to photographing each child for teachers to identify.

The driver of the bus, 24-year-old Johnthony Walker, was arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide. Police said Walker was driving well over the posted 30 mph limit when he lost control of the bus, which was not equipped with seat belts.

He was jailed on $107,500 bail for a court appearance Nov. 29 on charges that also included reckless driving and reckless endangerment. It was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer.

Reeling from the tragedy, Chattanoogans lined up to donate blood and created a memorial of flowers and stuffed toys at the crash scene.

"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."

LaFrederick Thirkill remembered his 9-yearold cousin, Cordayja Jones, as a girly-girl, who liked dressing up and giving hugs.

Thirkill is the principal at Orchard Knob Elementary, where Cordayja attended before changing schools to Woodmore Elementary.

She was a polite little girl, he said. Even though he was her cousin, she called him "Mr. Thirkill" when she saw him in the hallways.

"She was always smiling," he said of the fourth grader. "I remember her as just a kid who always smiles. I never saw her sad, never saw her mad. The kid that always smiled and she's leaning in to give me a hug. Very soft-spoken, but her actions were very kind and very gentle."

At an evening prayer vigil Tuesday, a local church overflowed and gospel choir boomed out songs. Preachers spoke of grief, strength and faith.

Children the same age as those who died got antsy in the capacity-filled lobby. Reality intruded, though, as an usher walked a tearful woman through the crowd.

"This woman needs a seat," he said. "She lost her daughter."

Parents used to sending their children off to school every day without incident struggled to cope with the news.

"It's real tough," said Dujuan Butchee, whose daughters, Jamya and Janesa, are eighth-graders who used to go to the same school as 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 had 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."

Three of the children killed were in fourth grade, one was in first grade and another in kindergarten, said Kirk Kelly, interim superintendent of Hamilton County schools. Their families were notified, but their names were not released. All the children aboard went to Woodmore Elementary School.

As the National Transportation Safety Board investigation got underway, NTSB 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 NTSB has been pushing for — would have made a difference.

Craig Harris, a parent of two children who had been on the bus, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that the bus

fled, including Castro's daughter Alina Fernandez Revuelta and his younger sister Juana.

Still, the revolution thrilled millions in Cuba and across Latin America who saw it as an example of how the seemingly arrogant Yankees could be defied. And many on the island were happy to see the seizure of property of the landed class, the expulsion of American gangsters and the closure of their casinos.

Castro's speeches, lasting up to six hours, became the soundtrack of Cuban life and his 269-minute speech to the U.N. General Assembly in 1960 set the world body's record for length that still stood more than five decades later.

As Castro moved into the Soviet bloc, Washington began working to oust him, cutting U.S. purchases of sugar, the island's economic mainstay. Castro, in turn, confiscated $1 billion in U.S. assets.

The American government imposed a trade embargo, banning virtually all U.S. exports to the island except for food and medicine, and it severed diplomatic ties on Jan. 3, 1961.

On April 16 of that year, Castro declared his revolution to be socialist, and the next day, about 1,400 Cuban exiles stormed the beach at the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's south coast. But the CIA-backed invasion failed.

The debacle forced the U.S. to give up on the idea of invading Cuba, but that didn't stop Washington and Castro's exiled enemies from trying to do him in. By Cuban count, he was the target of more than 630 assassination plots by militant Cuban exiles or the U.S. government.

The biggest crisis of the Cold War between Washington and Moscow exploded on Oct. 22, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy announced there were Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba and imposed a naval blockade of the island. Humankind held its breath, and after a tense week of diplomacy, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev removed them. Never had the world felt so close to nuclear war.

Castro cobbled revolutionary groups together into the new Cuban Communist Party, with him as first secretary. Labor unions lost the right to strike. The Catholic Church and other religious institutions were harassed. Neighborhood "revolutionary defense committees" kept an eye on everyone.

Castro exported revolution to Latin American countries in the 1960s, and dispatched Cuban troops to Africa to fight Westernbacked regimes in the 1970s. Over the decades, he sent Cuban doctors abroad to tend to the poor, and gave sanctuary to fugitive Black Panther leaders from the U.S.

But the collapse of the Soviet bloc ended billions in preferential trade and subsidies for Cuba, sending its economy into a tailspin. Castro briefly experimented with an opening to foreign capitalists and limited private enterprise.

As the end of the Cold War eased global tensions, many Latin American and European countries re-established relations with Cuba. In January 1998, Pope John Paul II visited a nation that had been officially atheist until the early 1990s.

Aided by a tourism boom, the economy slowly recovered and Castro steadily reasserted government control, stifling much of the limited free enterprise tolerated during harder times.

As flamboyant as he was in public, Castro tried to lead a discreet private life. He and his first wife, Mirta Diaz Balart, had one son before divorcing in 1956. Then, for more than four decades, Castro had a relationship with Dalia Soto del Valle. They had five sons together and were said to have married quietly in 1980.

By the time Castro resigned 49 years after his triumphant arrival in Havana, he was the world's longest ruling head of government, aside from monarchs.

In retirement, Castro voiced unwavering support as Raul slowly but deliberately enacted sweeping changes to the Marxist system he had built.

His longevity allowed the younger brother to consolidate control, perhaps lengthening the revolution well past both men's lives.

"I'll be 90 years old soon," Fidel Castro said at an April 2016 Communist Party congress where he made his most extensive public appearance in years. "Soon I'll be like all the others. The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban Communists will remain as proof that on this planet, if one works with fervor and dignity, they can produce the material and cultural goods that human beings need and that need to be fought for without ever giving up."

Cuba's government announced that Castro's ashes would be interred on Dec. 4 in the eastern city of Santiago that was a birthplace of his revolution. That will follow more than a week of honors, including a nearly nationwide caravan retracing, in reverse, his tour from Santiago to Havana with the triumph of the revolution in 1959.