DA says driver in bus crash had near miss with another train

DALTON - The school bus driver in a collision with a train that killed three students had a near miss with a locomotive 11 days before the fatal accident. That&#39;s what prosecutors say in a letter obtained by a newspaper. <br> <br> Rhonda Cloer drove the school bus that collided with a train just across the Tennessee line near Tennga on March 28, 2000. The impact killed three children and injured four others, including Cloer&#39;s daughter. <br> <br> District Attorney Jerry Estes of Polk County, Tennessee, wrote in a letter to Cloer&#39;s attorneys that Cloer had narrowly missed colliding with a locomotive 11 days before. The letter says no children were in the bus that day. <br> <br> The Daily Citizen of Dalton got a hold of Estes&#39; letter and published it in today&#39;s editions. <br> <br> Cloer faces 19 criminal charges, including three counts of vehicular homicide. The district attorney sent the letter to explain why he denied a request by Cloer&#39;s attorneys to skip a trial and put Cloer on probation. <br> <br> Estes wrote that continuing with a trial was in the public interest and could serve as a lesson to other bus drivers.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/196582