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A Florida bus driver was charged with nearly 30 counts of child neglect as well as reckless driving after she narrowly avoided catastrophe and was clipped by a train last week.
No one was injured as the bus, transporting children in the Sumter County school district, was clipped by a CSX train with 29 students and one aide aboard. The driver, Yvonne Hampton, was employed by the district since 2015, according to Sumter County Superintendent Logan Brown, who posted a video about the incident on Facebook on April 6.
The driver stepped down in place of termination, according to Fox 35 Orlando.
“The trust that our families place in us to transport their children safely is something we take extremely seriously,” Brown said in a prepared video statement. “Anyone who jeopardizes that trust will not work in the Sumter County School District.”
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The superintendent said in the video that the train clipped the corner of the bus.
“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,” he said.
The driver, according to the arrest record obtained by Fox News Digital, said there was a car at the intersection, and she was waiting for it to move. She told the police that the car began to move so she started to drive over the other side of the racks, but the car had stopped.
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The arrest record continued, “The defendant said she then had to stop right where the bus was parked. The defendant said that the car finally left, and she pulled up more but, it was not enough.”
“Upon asking the defendant if at any time she stopped on the tracks, the defendant replies, ‘no.’ She then informed me that as she was moving over the tracks the railroad crossing warning system activated. So she had to keep moving cause she was on the tracks. When the car finally moved out of the way she was able to move up as far as she could,” the arrest record said.
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The arrest record stated, “Based on the video evidence, it is clear the defendant made the decision to cross the railroad tracks after she saw the railroad warning system activate; thus, through culpable negligence, the defendant neglected each child and exposed the adult bus aid to possible injury.”
ABC’s “Good Morning America” spoke with a student who was on the bus.
“She like stopped on the tracks specifically and then didn’t move whenever we were all yelling, ‘Train!’ And it was very scary in the moment,” 12-year-old Cheyenne Gant said, joined by her mom.
Hampton appeared in court on Tuesday and had her bond set at $30,000. She didn’t respond to questions that were asked of her as she left Sumter County jail, according to a local Fox report.
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