A truck driver has been sentenced to one year in jail for passing a school bus on the right side after it’s stop signal was extended.
The incident took place last May on Minnesota Highway 23 and was captured by a dash cam on the bus. Although it’s not visible in the video, witnesses say that the school bus stopped and extended it’s amber stop signal in order to pick up a student when the tractor trailer passed between them.
The truck driver, Allen Howard Morris, initially left the scene but turned himself in later that evening after Minnesota Department of Public Safety posted the dash cam video online. The clip amassed over a million views on YouTube, as well as being featured on many news stations.
Morris told investigators that he turned his head to look at a nearby field, and by the time he looked up it was too late to stop, so he passed the school bus in order to avoid an accident.
Morris will serve one year in Kandiyohi County Jail, two years of probation, and is required to pay a $1000 fine as well as write a letter of apology.
