School Bus Video of Stop-Arm Running Incident Key in Fatal Crash Case

LEESBURG, Va. — School bus video that showed a food truck speed past the stopped bus and two students was key evidence in a case on the fatal crash that happened moments afterward, NBC 4 reports.

Video showed that on Sept. 8, 2017, Tony Dane, who was driving a school bus that was converted into a food truck for his company, Dane’s Great American Hamburger, ran the activated stop arm on a school bus, according to the news source. The school bus driver, Charity Dokos, honked the horn, and the two children she had stopped to drop off froze as the vehicle nearly hit them, NBC 4 reports. They were not injured.

Dane then slammed into a car with five people inside, killing the driver, who was the mother of the three children in the car, according to the news source. Soon after, Dokos came across the scene of the fatal crash as she continued on her route.

A recording of an interview that investigators conducted with Dane revealed that he knew the brakes on the food truck were failing, but he kept driving the vehicle, according to the news source. That interview and the school bus video were key evidence used to convict Dane of involuntary manslaughter. A judge sentenced him to 11-and-a-half years in prison last week, NBC 4 reports.

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