A tour bus driver who struck and fatally injured two pedestrians in Washington in 2018 was sentenced Monday to six months in jail.

Gerard James, 46, of Baltimore, received a four-year sentence during a hearing Monday in D.C. Superior Court, according to authorities. However, all but six months of the sentence was suspended due to James’ apparent remorse over the incident.

Authorities said James was driving an Eyre Bus, Tour & Travel vehicle on Seventh Street Northwest on Dec. 19, 2018. He then reportedly made an illegal left turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and struck two women in a crosswalk.

The women, Monica A. Carlson, 61, of Skagway, Alaska, and her mother, Cora L. Adams, 85, of Elbe, Wash., died from injuries sustained in the incident, authorities said. The women were in D.C. as tourists for the holiday season.

Investigators determined that Carlson and Adams had just stepped into the street after observing a pedestrian walk signal.

It’s unclear what led James to turn left despite a red left-turn signal. Authorities initially suspected that James was reaching for a cellphone at the time of the crash, but his attorney argued that James already had begun turning by the time the phone rang.

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