A Florida woman is facing charges of child neglect after, authorities say, she drove a school bus onto railroad tracks, where a train clipped the vehicle.
The 29 students and the school system staff on board were unharmed in the incident, the Sumter County School District said.
Yvonne Hampton, 67, is accused of driving the bus across the tracks as a train was closing in Thursday in Bushnell, 55 miles west of Orlando.
The front left corner of the train hit the back left corner of the bus, Sumter School District Superintendent Logan Brown said.
He added in a Facebook video that “when you really understand how close this was, it’s sobering. A matter of six inches is the difference in all of this, and it could have been an extremely catastrophic situation.”
The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ms. Hampton on Monday and charged her with 29 counts of child neglect, all felonies, plus endangering an adult and a traffic violation, both misdemeanors. Jail records show that she bonded out Tuesday for $30,000.
“It was simple. The bus driver made poor decisions that could have resulted in the death of 29 children and one adult. … Trains don’t sneak up on people, folks. It was poor judgment that led to this arrest, poor judgment that put children at risk,” Sumter County Sheriff Pat Breeden said in a Facebook video.
While Ms. Hampton says she was on the tracks before the train warning system went into effect, authorities say she was caught on footage taken on the bus saying that she was “not gonna stop for no train,” according to Daytona Beach’s WESH.
Ms. Hampton, who had worked for the district since 2015, resigned in lieu of being fired, according to Orlando’s WOFL.
Mr. Brown said, “The trust that our families place in us to transport their children safely is something we take extremely seriously. Anyone who jeopardizes that trust will not work in the Sumter County School District.”
The district has since eliminated the crossing in question, which has no red lights and limited space, from its school bus routes.
