Undersheriff Jeff Riggs, right, and Vicksburg EMT Daryl Carson work with other emergency workers at the scene this morning of a fatal wreck on Jeff Davis Road.(Brian Loden The Vicksburg Post)

[9/30/04]A pickup driver died this morning when his vehicle slammed into the rear of a school bus stopped at 5815 Jeff Davis Road to pick up its first four elementary students of the day. The bus driver was injured.

“He never even slowed down,” said Keith Hunt, parent of one of the children waiting to board. Hunt saw the impact from his porch. “I ran right out, checked his vitals. There were none.”

The dead man was identified as Willie W. Flowers, 57, of 1172 Tilford Taylor Road in Utica. He had an Anderson-Tully Co. bumper sticker on the 1991 Chevrolet 4×4 and logging-related equipment in the bed of the truck.

A 250-gallon diesel tank behind the cab was partially full, said Volunteer Fire Coordinator Kelly Worthy, who was on the scene with volunteer firefighters from Fisher Ferry and LeTourneau departments. It may have added to the force of the impact, leaving the pickup in a shallow V-shape after impact with the rear of bus No. 03-26.

“It sounded like an artillery round,” said Clifton Thornell, grandparent of the students, who was asleep in the home when the wreck occurred at 7:20 a.m.

Hunt said he went next to bus driver Jearline Cosby, 48, 353 Grange Hall Road, who had stumbled out and fallen to the ground.

“She was saying her neck hurt,” Hunt said. His family provided a pillow and comforted her until Vicksburg Fire Department ambulance personnel arrived. She was taken to River Region Medical Center, where a spokesman said her condition was being evaluated at mid-morning.

“There is no better bus driver, I’ll tell you that,” Hunt said. He said she always checks traffic several times before signaling the four Warrenton Elementary students across the road to board “and fusses if they don’t pay attention to her.” But Flowers’ truck approached so fast no one saw or heard it coming. “He had to be going at least 50,” Hunt said. Undersheriff Jeff Riggs said the bus lights were flashing and there were no skid marks showing an attempt to slow or stop the pickup.

Because of that, Coroner John Thomason said he ordered an autopsy to be performed in Pearl, probably tonight, to determine if Flowers was having a medical problem. “The sun was at his back and he had 60 or 70 yards of clear straightaway before he hit the bus,” Thomason said. The children, ages 6, 6, 7 and 8, were taken back inside their home. A substitute bus continued the route.

Flowers was the eighth person to die in a vehicle accident on a Warren County road this year.