BALLWIN, Mo. — The motorist who was captured on video driving onto the lawn of a home on Wednesday to bypass a stopped school bus and the car that stopped behind it was identified and arrested on Thursday, police said.
On Thursday morning, Ballwin Police Department officers arrested Matthew S. McCloskey and charged him with leaving the scene of an accident, driving on a suspended license, and violation of a school bus stop sign, according to a news release from the police department.
As SBF previously reported, video from a camera on the side of a Parkway School District bus showed the bus slowing to a stop and its stop arm extending, with a red light flashing. One car had stopped for the bus. Then the car driving behind that car swerved to the right to bypass it and veered onto the lawn and sidewalk, passing a car parked on the street and the bus.
The school district then posted the video on its Facebook page and asked for readers to contact the Ballwin Police Department with any information on the incident. That post has been shared over 3,300 times. The police department also posted the video on its Facebook page.
Scott Stephens, public information officer for the police department, told St. Louis Post-Dispatch that a combination of police work, social media, and the community calling in tips helped them make an arrest in the case.
“Thank you to everyone who sent in tips and helped our officers solve this quickly!” the police department said in the news release.
McCloskey admitted to driving the vehicle involved in the bus passing incident, according to police. He claimed that the brakes failed on the car he had borrowed to drive to an appointment, and that forced him to take a route that would avoid getting into a crash or hitting anyone, NBC 5 reports. He also told the news source that he tried to return to the scene once he was able to stop the car, but at that point, the bus was gone.
McCloskey was released from custody on traffic summonses, and the case will be forwarded to the Ballwin Municipal Prosecutor's Office.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that McCloskey has a criminal record that includes attempted rape, failure to register as a sex offender, and drug charges, and was ticketed for traffic violations just months ago.
