BALTIMORE (AP) - The Latest on a crash involving a school bus and a commuter bus that killed both drivers and four mass transit riders in Baltimore (all times local):
4:50 p.m.
An accident report shows the driver of the school bus that crashed in Baltimore this week, killing six people including himself, may have lost consciousness during an earlier crash two years ago.
According to the report released to The Associated Press on Friday, police in suburban Howard County said Glenn Chappell’s spouse told them at the time that he took medication for seizures.
The accident report from Feb. 9, 2014, says Chappell was driving in Ellicott City around 9 a.m. when he apparently “suffered a medical condition” and lost consciousness and/or control of the car.
The report says the vehicle crossed a concrete median and oncoming traffic, eventually striking a guardrail. It then continued on a pedestrian sidewalk before coming to a rest after striking some trees and shrubbery.
It says Chappell was taken to a hospital with no apparent physical injuries.
Authorities have declined to answer specific questions about Chappell’s health history but say they are looking at it as part of the investigation.
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1:30 p.m.
The National Transportation Safety Board says investigators have found no mechanical defects in the two buses involved in this week’s fatal crash in Baltimore.
Jennifer Morrison is the NTSB’s lead investigator at the scene. Morrison said at a news conference Friday afternoon that the agency has completed the mechanical inspections of both the commuter bus and school bus and found no deficiencies.
Morrison also says the NTSB and Baltimore police have obtained four surveillance videos that show the school bus on its approach to the crash site. But she says none shows the collision. The bus hit a car before colliding with a Maryland Transit Administration bus early Tuesday morning, killing six people, including both bus drivers.
Police spokesman T.J. Smith says it appears from the surveillance video that the bus was traveling at a rate higher than the posted limit, but he says the exact rate is still being determined.
Smith also announced that police have determined an additional person was injured in the crash, bringing the total to 11.
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10:45 a.m.
An attorney says the transportation company that operated the school bus involved in a deadly crash in Baltimore had a current medical certificate for the driver.
Attorney George Bogris said by telephone Friday that AAAfordable Transportation had a valid medical certificate for Glenn Chappell’s commercial driver’s license that was set to expire in June 2017. He says he can’t say why Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration didn’t have a copy. He says the company has turned the certificate over to investigators.
The MVA says Chappell’s medical certification expired Aug. 31 and the agency didn’t receive an updated one, as required by federal law. The agency says it sent Chappell two letters saying he was no longer authorized to operate a commercial motor vehicle.
Chappell died Tuesday, along with a Maryland Transit Administration bus driver and four mass transit passengers, when the school bus crossed the center line and smashed into the commuter bus.
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8 a.m.
The daughter of the school bus driver killed in a crash with a commuter bus is disputing claims that her father shouldn’t have been driving the bus.
WBAL-TV reports that Glenn Chappell’s daughter, Maia, said in a statement that her father “was authorized to drive, otherwise the company he worked for would not have let him drive.” She tells WMAR-TV in an interview that “in order for him to be driving, he had to be up to par.”
Sixty-seven-year-old Chappell was killed Tuesday, along with a Maryland Transit Administration bus driver and four mass transit passengers, when his school bus crossed the center line and smashed into the commuter bus. State officials say Chappell shouldn’t have been driving because his commercial license had been suspended two months earlier.
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3:15 a.m.
State officials say the driver of a Baltimore school bus involved in a deadly crash with a commuter bus shouldn’t have been driving because his commercial license had been suspended two months earlier.
Glenn Chappell also could have been kept from driving because he pleaded guilty in 2012 to second-degree assault. A State Board of Education regulation says a school system “may not” permit someone convicted of a violent crime to operate a school vehicle.
Chappell, 67, was killed Tuesday, along with a Maryland Transit Administration bus driver and four mass transit passengers, when his school bus crossed the center line and smashed into the commuter bus. No children were aboard.
Neither Chappell’s employer nor Baltimore City Public Schools are answering questions about the crash or Chappell’s fitness.
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