Betty Bean has this breaking news ...


The driver who crashed a bus loaded with 26 Green Magnet School second graders on a field trip to Safety City Thursday, March 10, has been arrested and charged with DUI. No children were injured, but the bus crashed into an entrance gate

Hollis Clay Walker, 78, of Powell, was taken to Ft. Sanders Regional Medical Center after the crash. He was arrested upon his release on March 13. The warrant says he was unsteady on his feet, “thick tongued, slurred speech” following the incident.
A post on the Knoxville Police Department Facebook page says Walker was arrested and charged with DUI, reckless endangerment and simple possession.
The day of the incident, Walker was in possession of 69 of 90 Kolonapin pills (a sedative used to treat seizures, panic disorders and anxiety) from a prescription filled earlier in the day. The warrant says he couldn’t remember whether he’d taken pills that morning.
The prescription was not in his name. Walker is being held on a $4,500 bond.
After the crash, the bus rolled onto a small grassy area near the front door of Safety City, and employees there got the children off and moved them to a safe place. Before they could return to the bus, Walker pulled away, sideswiped a fence and came to a stop in the parking lot. Emergency personnel found Walker slumped over the steering wheel and incoherent.
This is not Walker’s first brush with the law. In 2014, General Sessions Court Judge Geoff Emery ordered him to stay out of Walmart and dismissed a theft charge against him after he completed diversion. A charge of DUI by consent incurred in 2014 was dismissed last year.