Florida bus driver was ‘not gonna stop for no train’ – even at the cost of innocent children

A school bus driver in Florida has been arrested after putting the lives of the children riding the bus in serious danger. 67-year-old Yvonne Hampton drove across train tracks last Thursday and allegedly said she was “not gonna stop for no train.” 

Footage online shows the moments after the bus had pulled onto the tracks only to be trapped half on the rails due to traffic on the other side. With nowhere to pull forward the vehicle was a sitting duck on the tracks. Meanwhile, the horn of the fast approaching train can be heard blaring in the background, a pressing reminder of the urgency of the situation. 

With 29 children on board and a train that was definitely travelling too fast to stop the whole thing could have easily ended in tragedy. Thankfully the traffic in front was able to squeeze forward enough for the bus to just about get out of the way of the speeding train, although the rear corner of the bus was clipped according to the New York Post. 

Miraculously, nobody was injured as a result of the accident but the children riding the bus were definitely traumatized. Another video of the incident shows the chaos inside the bus moments after the driver had managed to pull forwards enough to avoid it. The kids can be heard screaming and some cry as they likely believed that they were about to die.

Yvonne Hampton is arrested

In hindsight it’s easy to say she should have waited on the other side of the tracks but one testimony from someone who was there may explain why she tried to cross. “The bus had stopped before the tracks, and then it started to go. A car had changed into the other lane, by the looks of it,” claims eyewitness Christina Armstrong, “I saw the bus pull forward, but not enough.”

Regardless, it was decided that Hampton may have been irresponsible by pulling onto the tracks when there was no clear way forward. While nobody was hurt the video appears to show that the driver put the lives of the children in unnecessary danger. She was fired on the same day as the crash and found herself facing 29 counts of felony child neglect on Monday. One person claimed that the driver allegedly said she wasn’t going to stop for the train.

“A matter of 6 inches is the difference in all of this, and it could have been an extremely catastrophic situation,” Sumter County School District Superintendent Logan Brown said in a statement. Yvonne Hampton is currently being held without bond at the Sumter County jail, while the school bus route has been changed to avoid the railroad crossing where the crash happened.