RISING SUN, Md. — Surveillance video captures the moment on Thursday morning when children preparing to get on their school bus on Telegraph Road in Rising Sun are stopped in their tracks by a truck speeding around it leaving a parent helpless, but to throw up her arms in disbelief.
School counselors would later have to calm the young girls, ages seven and 10, who survived the near miss.
“She made the comment, ‘Dad, if I took one or two more steps, I probably would have been hit’,” said Shawn Kennedy, “That’s when it hit me. I don’t want to hear my 10-year-old daughter ever say that.”
Danger trying to board the school bus
The Cecil County Sheriff’s Office says it issues hundreds of citations for vehicles failing to stop for school buses each month, but it’s never seen one quite like this.
“This was an intentional act,” said Capt. Michael Holmes, “This is somebody that just wasn’t paying attention. They purposefully drove on the right side of the road to go around the bus. That’s what makes this so egregious.”
And upon closer inspection, the driver’s actions are even worse than you might think at first glance.
What you can’t see in the surveillance video is that the truck actually left the road and came up here along this grass embankment to pass the school bus.
The cautious mother of one of the girls also certainly helped save their lives.
“So Amanda’s always been good,” said Kennedy, “In the parking lot, there’s a line and she always makes them wait until the doors are open right there, and honestly that’s probably what saved their life yesterday was her holding them there.”
Police are now looking for a gold or tan Toyota model pickup---the same one other surveillance video showed caught behind the bus during a few previous stops.
“I think he just got tired of all the stops and for whatever reason, he chose my daughter and my nieces’ stop to hop the banks and come closer to having a different conversation,” said Brandon Stewart, the seven-year-old’s father.
If you recognize the truck or know who was operating it, you’re asked to contact the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office.
