On August 27, 2008, a trial began for a 28-year-old man facing four counts of negligent homicide after a fatal bus accident in November 2007. The man, the driver of the bus, faces up to six years in prison for each count.

At the time of the bus accident, the man was driving a bus when it crossed the median on Interstate 40 in Forrest City, Arkansas, colliding with a pickup truck and a tractor-trailer truck. The driver of the pickup truck and three bus passengers were killed in the collision.

After the bus accident, troopers found green capsules that the man said was headache medicine, but which was later identified as an amphetamine banned in the United States. It was also determined that the man was talking on the cell phone when he lost control of the bus in the rain, and he did not have a required relief driver with him.

Reports said the man claimed he lost consciousness and fell to the floor of the bus before the fatal bus accident. He was arrested in January 2008.

Source: Kendall Owens, “Trial for driver in deadly bus wreck to begin,” Times-Herald, August 25, 2008.