Trucker gets jail time for passing school bus on right

Minnesota police said that the semi-truck driver nearly hit a student as he swerved around a stopped school bus in the May 2014 incident.

Thomas McMahon・Executive Editor

March 2, 2015

Trucker gets jail time for passing school bus on right — The Minnesota State Patrol released footage of the May 2014 incident in which a semi-truck swerved around a stopped school bus.

1 min to read

PAYNESVILLE, Minn. — A truck driver accused of illegally passing a school bus on the right side last year has been sentenced for the high-profile incident.

The Minnesota State Patrol said that the semi-truck driver nearly hit a young female student, who was waiting on the side of a highway near Paynesville, as he swerved around the stopped school bus on May 30. The bus had its lights flashing and its stop arm extended, police said.

The girl was not injured.

A few days after the incident, the state patrol released a video clip of the incident from a surveillance camera on the bus and asked for the public’s help in identifying the semi-truck. The video generated a surge of media coverage and has gotten more than 400,000 views on YouTube.

The truck driver, who kept going after passing the bus, turned himself in later in the day that the video was released.

After pleading guilty to a gross misdemeanor, truck driver Allen Morris was sentenced last week. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Morris received one year in county jail, two years of probation and a $1,000 fine. He was also ordered to write a letter of apology.

Topics:danger zone law enforcement Minnesota stop-arm running/illegal passing Management Safety

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