School district IDs driver killed by bus

Pulaski County Special School District officials have identified the man killed Monday when he was hit by his own bus.

Jason Johnson, 40, had been a mechanic with the school district for nearly a decade, school officials said in a news release Tuesday.

Johnson worked for the district from 2007 to 2016 and returned in February of this year, officials said.

Johnson died around 2 p.m. Monday after being called to Treasure Hill Road to fix a mechanical problem on one of the district's Career-Based Initiative buses.

Students got off the bus and re-entered once repairs were complete, the release said.

Johnson then got back on the bus he had driven to the scene and started traveling toward Towne Oaks Drive, officials said.

He stopped a short time later and apparently got out to check something, and the bus began rolling down the street, according to the release.

Johnson ran alongside the bus in an attempt to climb back inside and stop the vehicle, but he was struck by the bus and killed, officials said.

No students were on the bus when it crashed into a tree.

The school system's director of transportation said the school bus accident is the district's first to result in a fatality.

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State Desk on 10/31/2018

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