Aitkin County, Minn. – Eleven kids are OK after some quick-thinking stopped a runaway school bus.
It happened Wednesday afternoon in Aitkin County, Minnesota.
A deputy’s dash camera captured it as the bus driver was having a medical emergency and couldn’t pull over.
The 11 kids on board had just finished another school day in Isle, Minnesota, and were on their way home. But this would be no ordinary bus ride. The bus began to weave – catching the attention of a sheriff’s deputy.
“She first saw the vehicle weave within its lane a little bit. She thought that’s not right. She turned her lights on trying to stop it and the weaving became more pronounced,” says (Sheriff Scott Turner.
At one point the bus, traveling at about 40 miles an hour, goes into a ditch, almost tips over, and then somehow drives back onto the road. The deputy did what she could to warn oncoming traffic.
“Getting around the bus into the opposite lane to alert vehicles that were ahead of the bus that there was problem on the roadway to get them to get out of the way.”
One driver had to put it in reverse to avoid a head-on collision- eventually maneuvering into a driveway. Eventually a state trooper used stop sticks to get the bus to stop in a ditch in the town of Glen.
The bus driver, 68-year-old Scott Gilbertson, was immediately rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, none of the kids on board were hurt. But they were in shock.
The kids ranged in age from 6 to 14-years-old.
Some called 911 and others called their parents during the incident.
It lasted about 14 minutes and covered about 5 1/2 miles.
