Terrifying moments as northern Ont. mother watches transport almost hit school bus carrying her children

A mother in Spanish, Ont., looked on in horror as a transport truck almost collided with a school bus carrying four of her young children.

A 31-year-old truck driver from Sudbury has been charged after a commercial motor vehicle narrowly missed hitting a stopped school bus Thursday afternoon on Highway 17 in Spanish, Ont.

Amy Bowes told CTV News that her four children -- ages 13, 9, 7, 5 – were the last kids on the bus. Bowes said she watched in horror as the commercial motor vehicle failed to slow down as it approached the bus.

“I started walking up the driveway and I quickly realized as they were coming to a stop that the transport behind my school bus was not slowing down,” Bowes said.

“It was going at highway speed.”

She began screaming and running toward the bus. The bus driver realized what was happening and told the kids to sit down, bracing for impact.

“At the last moment, (the truck driver) swerved around the school bus, slammed on his brakes,” Bowes said.

Smell of burning rubber

“All you could smell was burning rubber.”

She said he swerved into the passenger lane, skidded through the stop sign and came to a halt. At that point, Bowes got on the bus to make sure her children were OK. Then she went outside to get the licence plate of the truck.

Bowes lauded the school bus driver for her quick actions.

“I can’t praise her quick thinking enough in a circumstance like that,” she said.

“She made sure they went back to their seats quickly so they would have been safer in case there was an impact.”

Driver has been charged

Ontario Provincial Police said Friday they received several calls about the incident, which took place around 4 p.m.

Const. Berkley Parisien said the initial investigation indicated that the truck driver drove through the school bus’s red lights and a stop sign. He has been charged with failing to stop at least 20 metres behind a school bus.

“Drivers and vehicle owners can be charged if their vehicle illegally passes a stopped school bus,” Parisien said in the news release.

“Fines range from $490-$2,000 and six demerit points for a first offence. For each subsequent offence, drivers can face fines from $1,000-$4,000, six demerit points, and possible jail time up to six months.”

In an email, Parisien said the driver wasn’t charged with failing to remain at the scene because “there was no actual collision.”

For her part, Bowes said she kept her children home from school Friday to give everyone a chance to recover.

After the near miss, she said her nine-year-old gave her a big hug.

“My nine-year-old came up to me and said, ‘Mommy, I thought I was going to die,’” Bowes said.

“No child -- no child -- should ever have to feel like that when they are just trying to go to school.”

She has lobbied for years to have the school bus equipped with a stop sign camera that would record drivers who fail to stop for the bus when its red lights are flashing.

But she and others who have asked for the cameras have been told that it’s too costly to equip all the buses.

Funds not available

“Everyone has told the same thing -- that the funds aren’t there to support it,” Bowes said.

“There are a few buses that have been equipped within the City of Sudbury, but they are not at the point of having them on every bus.”

Renée Boucher, executive director of the Sudbury Student Services Consortium, said in an email that they are advocating with the Ministry of Education for funding to install stop sign cameras on all buses.

“The current student transportation funding model provided by the Ministry of Education does not include a dedicated component for onboard technologies,” Boucher said.

“This includes interior and exterior surveillance cameras.”

To date, she said the consortium has paid on its own for 30 camera systems, which cost $3,000 each plus installation.

“We are also planning to purchase a limited number of additional systems in preparation for the upcoming school year,” Boucher added.

For her part, Bowes said she was fortunate that she got the licence plate of the truck in this incident. But she’s hoping that by going public, people will realize that no matter how much of a hurry they are in, it’s never worth it to pass a school bus.

“We got lucky yesterday,” Bowes said.

“We got lucky, but it could have ended so differently. And, like I said, I’ve had so many other parents since reaching out to me with their own experiences and this is happening every single day on our area roads. It’s unacceptable.”

One thing that has haunted her since it happened is the fact that her husband is a paramedic. Had a tragedy occurred, it would have been him arriving on the scene to find his own children in a serious collision.

“My own husband would have been responding to that accident,” she said.

“I have not been able to shake that.”