Florida bus driver charged with child neglect after train clips school bus
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A Florida bus driver has been charged with nearly 30 counts of child neglect as well as careless driving after he narrowly avoided disaster and crashed into a train last week.
No one was injured when a bus carrying Sumter County school district children collided with a CSX train carrying 29 students and a deputy. The driver, Yvonne Hampton, had been employed by the area since 2015, according to Sumter County Supervisor Logan Brown. posted a video about the incident on Facebook on April 6.
The driver resigned instead of termination, accordingly Fox 35 is in Orlando.
“The trust our families place in us to transport their children safely is something we take extremely seriously,” Brown said in a prepared video statement. “Anyone who jeopardizes this trust will not work for the Sumter County School District.”
A CSX Transportation freight train stops near the Brookland-Catholic University Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority subway stop on April 2, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
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The train hit the corner of the bus, the commissioner said in the video.
“When you realize how close this really was, it’s heartbreaking. The difference between all of these is a matter of six inches, and that could have been an extremely disastrous situation,” he said.
The driver said there was a car at the intersection and he was waiting for it to move, according to an arrest report obtained by Fox News Digital. He told police the car started to move and he started to drive towards the other side of the shelves, but the car stopped.
A bus parked in Richmond Heights, Florida, on March 11, 2024. Mugshot of Yvonne Hampton, a bus driver charged with 29 counts of child neglect and reckless driving in Sumter County, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/SumterCountyPolice)
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The arrest report continued: “The defendant then said that he had to stop where the bus was parked. The defendant eventually said that the car took off and parked further, but that was not enough.”
“When asked if the defendant ever stopped on the tracks, the defendant answers ‘no’. He later told me that as he was driving over the tracks, the railroad crossing warning system was activated. Because he was on the tracks, he had to keep moving. When the car was finally moved out of the way, he was able to go as far up as possible.” It was written in the arrest records.
A bus in Richmond Heights, Florida, on March 11, 2024, during an event highlighting funding for electric school buses. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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“Based on the video evidence, it is clear that the defendant decided to cross the railroad tracks after seeing the railroad warning system activated; therefore, it is clear that the defendant, through his culpable negligence, neglected each child and exposed the adult bus assistance to possible injury,” the arrest report states.
ABC’s “Good Morning America” spoke with a student on the bus.
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“He stopped, especially on the tracks, and we all shouted, ‘Train!’ He didn’t move when we shouted. And it was so scary at that moment,” said 12-year-old Cheyenne Gant with her mother.
Hampton appeared in court Tuesday and had his bond set at $30,000. HE did not respond Questions he was asked as he left the Sumter County jail, according to a local Fox report.
