A Florida school bus driver of a decade has lost her job and was arrested after an avoidable accident. Yvonne Hampton was driving a bus holding 29 middle school and high school students in Bushnell on April 2, 2026, when she drove over train tracks. Normally, that’s not a problem, but the train crossing signal had already gone off. As she drove over the tracks, the train clipped the back of her bus. Students were filming the accident and posted it on social media, making it go viral. Although no one was injured, Hampton willingly endangered the lives of 29 children and two adults because she didn’t want to stop.
She is facing over two dozen charges.
Deputies from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office reviewed audio and video from inside the school bus, according to the arrest report obtained by WESH. A voice that is believed to be Hampton’s can be heard saying “not gonna stop for no train.”
When detectives interviewed the woman, she said she was already driving over the tracks when the warning system turned on. Video from the bus, however, shows that was not true.
Hampton was arrested on April 6, 2026. She faced a judge the following day on charges that included culpable negligence, reckless driving, and 29 counts of neglect of a child without great bodily harm, WESH reported.
Her bond was set at $30,000, and Hampton bonded out of the Sumter County jail that same day around 5:30 p.m.
Hampton was criticized for her lapse in judgment.
“Trains don’t sneak up on people, folks,” Sumter County Sheriff Pat Breeden said in a video shared on Facebook. “It was poor judgment and that’s what led to this arrest.”
Breeden also added that Hampton made “poor decisions that could have resulted in the death of 29 children and one adult.”
Sumter County Schools Superintendent Logan Brown, who featured in the video alongside Breeden, called the accident “an unfortunate situation that could have ended a lot differently” in the video.
According to Brown, Hampton, who has been employed by the district since 2015, has been terminated, ClickOrlando reported. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
Some of the students involved spoke about the horrific experience.
“I hear someone yell ‘train,‘” 14-year-old Isabelle Sinibaldi, who was sitting near the back of the bus, told ClickOrlando. “I felt scared.”
Sinibaldi shared that she was having a hard time with her seat belt right before the crash. “I tried to press on my seat belt — it wouldn’t unlatch. I covered my head, I closed my eyes as hard as I can and hoped nothing bad happened.”
Another student told the outlet they also “felt scared, terrified, because I could see the train hitting the bus.”
Now, they’re afraid to ride the bus again. Parents were relieved that, despite the close call, no injuries happened. They understood that things could have been much, much worse.
“There was a fear — it could have been way worse than what it was,” parent Ashley Pharis shared with ClickOrlando. “I am hoping for more stricter guidelines with the bus routes and bus transportation — I think there should be stricter qualifications in order to be a bus driver.”
