NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

Bus Driver Gets 22 Years in Jail
Crash Injured 17 Students
July 6, 2007

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. - As a school bus driver, Angelynna Young held a special place in society, said Grant Commonwealth Attorney Jim Crawford: She was a trained professional, entrusted daily to be of a clear mind so she could ensure the safe passage of children to and from school.

She failed miserably, Crawford told a judge Wednesday.

"The bus wreck (was) not a bus accident, as I've heard today," Crawford said before asking Circuit Judge Stephen Bates to sentence Young to 22 years in prison for causing the crash that injured 17 middle-school students, two critically.

Bates imposed that sentence, saying the case showed the fallacy of believing that drug use injures only the person taking the drugs. Under terms of the plea agreement, Young will not be eligible for parole until she has served 10 years and two months Crawford said that Young spent most of the night before the crash getting tattoos at her boyfriend's house.

She got, at most, two hours of sleep, he said, and tests done afterward showed she had at least four different drugs in her system.

The result, he said, was her failure to react as trained when her bus ran off U.S. 25 Jan. 17 in Sherman.

Instead of regaining control, she overcorrected and drove it off the opposite side of the pavement, the vehicle's rear end smacking into a utility pole and nearly breaking it in half.

The noisy, jarring impact was captured by a video camera mounted on the interior of the bus; the tape was played to an emotional audience during Wednesday's hearing in Grant Circuit Court.

The video caused one student, Abby Brinker, to break down in tears and flee the courtroom. It left others - students and parents alike - both angry and bitter at the memory.

"Look what you did to me," Cody Shively, 12, one of the most seriously hurt, told Young during the hearing. He wears a helmet to protect his shattered skull.

"Because you had to take your damn drugs and drive the school bus... I wish you had life in prison. I really do."

Shively glared at Young, who sat looking at him and writing on a yellow legal pad as he spoke.

"I have one more thing to say to you," he said. "Your time is up. My time is now."
The hearing got started late, delayed for more than an hour as court officials waited both for the court reporter and for Young and her attorneys to read her 20-plus page pre-sentencing report.

Young told the courtroom that she felt for the children who were injured and their parents, and that she thinks about them and prays for them daily.

She said she was sorry for the wreck, but objected to the legal language in the charges against her, which said she showed "extreme indifference" to human life.

Then she dropped a bombshell.

"I'm here to say that I'm not guilty, and I here to withdraw my guilty plea," she said.

The move not only stunned the prosecutor, judge and families, but caught her own attorneys off guard. Public defender Rhonda Lause said she had no inkling of Young's intentions.

After a brief recess in which Young spoke with her attorneys, Lause reiterated her client's desire to withdraw her guilty plea.

But Crawford said she made the original plea - guilty to two counts of assault, 15 counts of wanton endangerment and eight counts of drug possession - knowingly, willingly and intelligently. He told Bates he had questioned her intently about her guilty pleas and her knowledge of what she was doing.

Bates agreed. He quickly overruled her motion, and ordered the sentencing hearing to continue.

Several parents and school children then spoke, talking about the impact the crash had had on them. Steve Shively, Cody's father, talked about spending weeks in the hospital, not knowing the long term impact of his son's injuries.

Shively said questions remain about that even now.

"We cried so many tears, we didn't think we could cry any more," he said. "Then we did."

His wife and Cody's mother, Tammy Shively, spat bitter words at Young, calling her a "low-life," and telling her, "You make me sick." At one point, as she described Cody's injuries, Young turned her head to write something down.

"You look at me," Mrs. Shively demanded. "It's easy to turn away. You look at me."

Richard Clise, the father of Jake Clise, the other student critically injured, said Young kept a "no-remorse stare." His wife, Becky Clise, said Young showed no concern for anyone but herself.

Mrs. Clise said Jake, her step-son, chose not to attend the hearing, but gave her a statement to read. In part, the boy wrote to Young: "I only wish you could feel the pain I felt when my face went through the bus window."

Jake suffered serious eye injuries, and has lost most of the sight in his left eye. Head injuries have caused him to lose both his sense of smell and his sense of taste.

Abby Brinker, the 11-year-old girl who ran out of the courtroom after the bus video was shown, returned later to confront Young. "I think you should be in jail 10 times longer," she said.

After a few more speakers, Young again asked to address the court. She then turned to the families, speaking into a sea of angry, disbelieving faces.

"You say I have a blank stare," she told them. "But you don't know how many days and nights, nights and days, I've lain in an isolation cell, crying."

She struggled to hold back tears.

"Every time I close my eyes, I see the wreck in its entirety," she said.

"I can't change it. I can't take back time. God knows if there was a way, I would have done it by now."

She then started to defend herself, and Bates warned her not to stray into evidence. She answered accusations that she was a bad, mean driver, and Bates warned her to keep her statement short.

"It was an accident," she said. "I know I had traces of drugs in my system, but I was not high."

At that point, Bates told her to sit down and be quiet, that she had said enough. He then quickly imposed her sentence, saying it ultimately would be less than the lifetime sentence of pain and suffering she had inflicted on the students and their parents.

Steve Shively called her apology "too little, too late." His son was even less enthusiastic about it.

"She said I'm sorry, but she didn't mean it," said Cody Shively

By Paul A. Long

School Bus Accident Caught On Video, Driver High At The Time
July 5, 2007

WILMINGTON, KY (NBC) -- New video has been released in the case of a school bus accident involving a driver that was high on drugs while behind the wheel. The video is from the in-bus camera.

The accident injured 17 Kentucky school children on January 17th.

On Thursday the children and their families watched the video in court. The driver, Angelynna Young, pled guilty to eleven charges including possession of a controlled substance and assault and wanton endangerment.

Young tried to withdraw her guilty plea in court on Thursday, but the judge turned down her request.

back to News

top