VIDEO: Van blows past stopped school bus in Lincoln County

LINCOLN COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Officials in Lincoln County are searching for the driver of a van that drove past a stopped school bus just seconds before a little girl crossed the road.

The Lincoln County School Bus Garage took to social media Tuesday, Sept. 17, to share video of the incident.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” wrote those in charge of buses for the school district. “This child could have been killed killed here. By the grace of God, she hesitated just a bit when exiting the bus. If not for that, this could have been a horrible tragedy.”

Video shows the bus at a complete stop as a little girl waited to exit. The bus driver reportedly had the stop sign hand extended, but that didn’t stop the driver of the van.

News 2 spoke with Curt Macysyn, executive director of National School Transportation Association, about why these close calls happen and how to stop them.

“The difficulty, you know, is that there are so many areas we can look to to say, ‘Hey, why is this happening? Is it distracted drivers? Is it are people in a rush?’,” explained Macysyn. “But at the end of the day, every state has a law that says it’s illegal to pass a stop school bus.”

The child was getting off at Little Blessings Daycare on Highway 64. According to data from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS), there are about 45 million occurrences of illegal school bus passing per school year.

In Tennessee, it is a Class A misdemeanor to fail to stop for a school bus. Drivers can also face fines from $250 to $1,000 for passing a stopped school bus with a stop arm out.