NEWARK, Ohio — While one driver is on trial, another one took the stand on Tuesday.

“I experienced the impact. And after that, I don’t know exactly what all transpired,” said Tusky Valley bus driver Donald Wagler.  

Wagler was driving the bus that was filled with members of the Tusky Valley school band. The bus was bound for Columbus until it was hit by the truck driven by Jacob McDonald, killing three students on board. But Wagler said his quick thinking prevented it from being worse.

“By turning hard right. I, I saved a lot of other lives that would have been impacted. You know, the bus would have been like an accordion, which, you know, would have totally hurt a lot more people,” said Wagler. 

Wagler broke his left leg in the collision and had to get it amputated. Meanwhile, the prosecution turning to a cybersecurity expert to try to show that McDonald was distracted by his phone at the time of the crash.

“There is significant evidence to suggest that this cellphone was sort of that the subscriber information of Mr. Jacob MacDonald that was in his possession was in active use,” said expert witness, Jonathan Buffington. 

While the defense cross-examined a state highway patrol officer, trying to debunk that thought.

“So you are implying like interaction that Mr. McDonald was necessarily holding the phone?” said defense attorney, Chris Brigdon. 

“Correct. Yeah. I’m not implying that in this section,” said Ohio State highway patrol officer, Trevor Jasper.

Jasper also told prosecutors that there were no signs that McDonald attempted to brake before the collision. 

“I went as far back as I could, all the way back to really look for any sign of evidence, not just right there at the impact. I saw no tire marks that lined up with the impact tire marks to indicate any braking,” said Jasper. 

Now that the prosecution has rested its case, the defense gets to call its witnesses. But that won’t happen until Thursday because one of the witnesses is coming in from out of town.