Minnesota State Patrol Searching For Semi That Nearly Hit Girl Waiting For School Bus

VIDEO: State Patrol Seeks Semi Involved in School Bus Incident

PAYNESVILLE, Minn. (KTTC) -- The Minnesota State Patrol is seeking the public's help in finding a semi that nearly hit a girl waiting for her school bus alongside the highway.

The State Patrol says the incident happened on May 30, when a semi illegally passed a stopped school bus on Highway 23 near Paynesville and New London.

Cameras inside the bus show the semi blowing past the stopped bus — lights flashing and stop arm down — and continue along the highway.

The State Patrol says the girl and bus driver were not hurt. Anyone with information is asked to call Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Brian Reu at 651-405-6047.

WOW!!!!

Lets count the ways he nearly ruined the lives of alot of people.....

He was running to fast...knowing he was behind a school bus... He passed on the RIGHT...where the child would be He didn't even stop to see if he did any damage of hurt anyone...

And he just trashed the reputation of every truck driver on the road today;;;;;

Jerk...I hope they find him and bury him UNDER the jail.....

Lets count the ways he nearly ruined the lives of alot of people.....

He was running to fast...knowing he was behind a school bus... He passed on the RIGHT...where the child would be He didn't even stop to see if he did any damage of hurt anyone...

And he just trashed the reputation of every truck driver on the road today;;;;;

Jerk...I hope they find him and bury him UNDER the jail.....

I couldn't have said it better myself, StarCar. Unbelievable! ....and unforgivable!

Https://m.facebook.com/story.php...

Driver of semi turned himself in.

Driver of semi that blew by stopped school bus, just missing sixth-grader, turns self in

Sixth-grader Alexis Schwartz said she felt the wind and the dust when a semitrailer truck roared by on the right side of her school bus and missed her by what she figures was only an inch and a half.

“It just kept coming and didn’t stop, and it didn’t even stop when it passed me,” she said. “My heart was pounding awfully fast, and my hands were shaking, because I was so scared to have it come up that close.”

The State Patrol had been looking for the driver, but said late Tuesday night that he had contacted them about the incident. That was after the patrol posted a video from the bus on YouTube showing how the truck nearly ran over the 13-year-old along Hwy. 23 in central Minnesota on Friday morning.

“We’re happy about that,” said Tracy Adams, Schwartz’s mother, when she learned the trucker had turned himself in.

The family lives in tiny Hawick, between New London and Paynesville.

“I was walking to my bus, and then the semi came out, of like, nowhere, and it almost hit me,” Schwartz said.

Her mother had taught her to wait back a distance from the road until the bus stopped and then walk to it. Friday, Schwartz turned her head and saw the semi bearing down, she said.

She saw the bus driver’s worried, scared expression as he looked at the truck and back at her, she said.

The bus driver, Mike Egerman, said he had put out his stop arm, as he does for every stop. A vehicle had already stopped behind the bus and so did another coming toward the bus.

“And that semi just went cruising by, on the right side. It happened so fast, it was amazing,” he said. Egerman estimated the truck was going 45 to 50 miles per hour on a stretch of highway where it drops from four lanes at 65 mph to two lanes at 55 mph.

“I saw her take a step toward the bus, and that semi went flying through. I couldn’t believe it. The shoulder is gravel there, and as soon as that semi went by, I couldn’t see her. I thought she was under the semi. I thought she was dead. And all of the sudden, the dust cleared, and there she stood,” he said.

The video shows the bus coming to a stop in its lane at the end of a driveway at 7 a.m. The door can be heard opening. That’s when the semi kicks up a cloud of dust as it passes, prompting the bus driver to exclaim, “Oooh, whoa!” He honks his horn.

The trucker kept going, which the bus driver for Paynesville Motor and Transfer said “floored” him.

“I was so shook up the rest of the day. It was really a difficult day for me,” he said. “This is small-town rural Minnesota, I know those kids almost like they’re family.”

State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske called the maneuver “incredibly dangerous and could’ve resulted in killing an innocent child.”

The bus company called Adams at 8:15, and she picked up her daughter after classes at Paynesville Middle School.

“I just wanted to get to her and hold her,” Adams said. “It was a close call, and we’re very lucky.”

The bus had its lights flashing and stop arm down, making the semi’s passing while a student is nearby a gross misdemeanor, according to the State Patrol.

WHAT THE Flamingfiretruckfromhell was he thinking? AND ON THE SHOULDER?

LittleJoe

The guy was not paying attention. He was likely out on some highway in the middle of nowhere and was not expecting a bus to stop in the lane like that. He may have been talking on the phone or doing any number of things. Then he sees this at the last second so he swerves to the right,not thinking about the chance of hitting anyone on the shoulder.

Then after he makes it by he realizes that he is going to be fired and maybe end up in jail. So that is why he kept going. Yes that is a terrible thing to do, but it is not at all that unbelievable really.

I am not familiar with the exact rules involving school buses except that you stop when they got those lights going. Why though did the bus not pull over onto the shoulder itself instead of stopping in the middle of the highway? Sooner or later something like this is going to happen and someone will get killed.

Why though did the bus not pull over onto the shoulder itself instead of stopping in the middle of the highway? Sooner or later something like this is going to happen and someone will get killed.

I wonder the same thing as buses around here going down a major (four line) highway with a 65 MPH speed limit do the same thing and stop in the middle of the road. It seems they should make a law stating school buses must pull over to the side of the road to pick up and drop off children.

Why though did the bus not pull over onto the shoulder itself instead of stopping in the middle of the highway? Sooner or later something like this is going to happen and someone will get killed.

I wonder the same thing as buses around here going down a major (four line) highway with a 65 MPH speed limit do the same thing and stop in the middle of the road. It seems they should make a law stating school buses must pull over to the side of the road to pick up and drop off children.

That bus should be over on the side IMO..... One thing I noticed if you take it frame by frame it would seem the lights on bus came on at the last second and the traffic coming the other way never slowed down....