A school bus driver has been charged after a train clipped the bus as more than two dozen students were inside.
The incident happened on April 2 in Sumter County, Florida, WFTV reported.
The video shows the bus moving off the tracks just before the train speeds by. The train clipped the bus, but no one was hurt. The superintendent said that they were “shaken and upset” by the incident.
Yvonne Hampton, 67, was at the wheel, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said. Court records show that she was finishing her afternoon route at the time, the Tampa Free Press reported.
One student said Hampton stopped on the tracks before the train barrelled through and initially didn’t move as the students told her a train was coming.
See her interview here, or below:
A separate video from inside the bus, apparently recorded by a student, shows the children panicking as the train gets close. Warning: the video shared on TikTok includes profanity.
The district superintendent, Logan Brown, said that they averted an “extremely catastrophic” incident, adding that the front left corner of the train hit the back left corner of the bus, adding it was a “matter of six inches is the difference” between what happened and a “catastrophic situation.”
Brown said he spoke with the train conductor, who said he saw the bus and was sounding the horn continuously and applied the brakes as the bus sat on the tracks.
Sumter County Sheriff Pat Breeden said in a separate update posted to Facebook that “trains don’t sneak up on people, folks, it was poor judgment.”
He said the crossing where the incident occurred is one of five crossings in Bushnell, the only one without a red light, and has a limited area for a bus when crossing the track. It was determined that the crossing is not safe for school buses, and all district buses will avoid it.
Brown said Hampton had been employed with the district since 2015. Hampton is no longer an employee of the district, the superintendent said.
Hampton was charged with 29 counts of child neglect, the sheriff said. She also faces charges of culpable negligence and reckless driving, the Tampa Free Press reported.
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