Court TV to Air Bus-Crash Trial

Court TV will air highlights from a trial regarding a 2002 bus crash near Terrell, Texas, that killed five people and injured several others.

A crew from the network videotaped the trial in Dallas, in which Dallas-based Discovery Tours and its owner, Eric Rockmore, were ordered in September to pay some $70.9 million to victims of the accident.

According to Court TV, the bus was carrying a youth group from Metro Church of Garland to a church camp in Louisiana when it hit a concrete abutment on Interstate 20, tearing the bus into pieces and killing four children and the driver, Ernest Carter, as well as leaving 36 other people injured.

The network added that tests later showed that Carter had been under the influence of cocaine and Valium at the time of the crash, and telephone records indicated that the driver did not get the amount of rest the federal government requires prior to taking the wheel.

"I'm glad that Court TV is willing to devote its considerable resources to show this trial to America. This is an important case," said attorney Mark Werbner of Sayles Werbner in Dallas, who represented the family of 15-year-old Nick Stout, who was left brain-damaged and permanently disabled as a result of the crash.