Log Truck Driver Says He Could Have Killed Children in Accident

It was a scary ride for one truck driver this morning as he went to deliver a load of logs. He was driving along highway 21 close to the Monteith Road, just past where I-95 intersects with 21 when he says the school bus pulled out in front of him.

The concerned driver of that log truck called 3 On Your Side, worried about what could have happened.

"If I had hit that school bus, it would have been my fault and that would have been on my conscience and I would have had to live with what happened to those kids and like I said it's been on my mind all day. It's bothered me it still bothers me. I just think it needs to be put out for people to know," explains Caleb Cartee, owner/operator of an 18-wheeler.

It was like Caleb Cartee was reliving the experience when we met this afternoon.

Cartee says the parents aren't out on the roads each morning, so they need to know what's going on with their child's bus driver.

He’s also thankful this morning didn't turn out the way it could have; a tractor trailer carrying 80,000 pounds of logs running over the bus.

"I've been thinking about it all day, I mean all day long, you know when you come that close to killing a bus load of kids, you know, it's something that stays with you," explains Cartee.

Truck owner-operator, Caleb Cartee can't shake the vision of what could have happened. He says luckily, a car in the left lane saw the bus pull out in front of him.

“He saw when I slammed on my brakes the truck squiggling around and he saw that I was trying to stop and he had enough sense that he stopped so that I could whip over and get in the other lane. If he hadn't have done that, there would have been no way for me to stop. I would have hit the bus," he says.

Cartee says he started making phone calls.

"Chatham County, they kept passing me from one person to the next. I never really was able to talk to anybody. They sent me to First alert (Student). They could never give me to anybody directly," he details.

"Cartee may not have been able to get answers, but I did. I talked to First Student's contract manager and he tells me the driver says everything was normal this morning, but that he is going to pull the tapes and the GPS tracking device, which monitors speed and directions turned."

Cartee hopes his scary situation will help others

"If you seen an 18-wheeler, always keep in mind that it takes us a lot longer to stop than it does for an average vehicle," he advises.

Cartee says even empty 18-wheelers take a while to stop because the trailer is still heavy.

I talked to First Student's contract manager, Randy Samples, late Tuesday afternoon. He says they don't see any mistakes made by the bus driver through the GPS system, but that they'll continue looking into the situation and get back to me.