A Carroll County grand jury has indicted former Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools bus driver Sabrina Ducksworth in connection with the March 27 bus crash that killed Kenwood Middle School eighth-graders Zoe Davis and Arianna Pearson.
Ducksworth is facing charges of drivers to exercise due care and driving on a roadway laned for traffic in the case, but the grand jury returned a no true bill on a vehicular homicide charge, according to online court records.
A hearing for Ducksworth is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 25.
Ducksworth was driving 24 Kenwood Middle School students and four teachers to Jackson, Tennessee, for a field trip when the bus was involved in the fatal crash.
The students were expected to participate in Greenpower USA, a two-day
event that features middle and high school students who built electric race cars.
When students returned to school on March 30, schools from across the Clarksville-Montgomery County district held prayers, vigils and moments of silence for the girls who died in the bus crash.
Parents seek answers
In the months following the crash, parents of Kenwood Middle School students began speaking out on the lack of transparency and communication between them and the district.
Kenwood parent Xaviel Lugo was driving behind the Kenwood bus and witnessed the crash, capturing it on his dash cam.
Lugo and his wife, Rosalee, waited anxiously at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital while doctors treated their daughter, Lani, who suffered a concussion and severe migraines. They caught parts of the press conference in Carroll County as the Tennessee Highway Patrol shared updates about the crash.
"When I read in a news story that all parents had been contacted, I asked my wife if someone had called her because no one had called me," he said.
Others spoke at CMCSS Board of Education meetings, including Jessica Davis, mom of Zoe Davis.
"We have an epidemic in this city, not a physical disease, but rather a lack of accountability, particularly in regard to those in positions of authority," she said in one meeting. "Instead, you sit comfortably in your seats, passing the responsibility on to everyone else and refusing to admit that there was anything you could have done or should have done."
What the bus accident report says
A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, released April 16, found that the Clarksville‑Montgomery County school bus crossed the center line before the crash.
According to the report, the school bus, a 2024 Blue Bird Conventional Type C, was traveling west on U.S. 70 around 11:35 a.m. on March 27 when the bus crossed the line.
At the same time, a 2013 International WorkStar dump truck operated by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, and a 2024 Chevrolet Trailblazer sport utility vehicle (SUV) were traveling east on US-70.
As the vehicles approached each other, the school bus entered the other lane, the report says, noting the left side of the school bus hit the left side of the dump truck, causing a sideswipe collision. After hitting the dump truck, the bus hit the SUV and left the road to the south, where it ended up facing down the roadside embankment but remained upright, the report said.
Davis and Pearson were killed while several other passengers suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious. Ducksworth also sustained serious injuries.
Two people in the TDOT dump truck sustained serious injuries, and the person in the SUV was uninjured.
The report says the weather was clear, the road was dry and the speed limit on the two-lane road was 55 miles per hour.
The crash is still under investigation while the NTSB determines probable cause.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Former Kenwood Middle School bus driver charged in fatal bus crash
