GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A FOX8 viewer captured a video on his dash camera of a Guilford County school bus running off the road along N.C. 150.
The driver had to make a sharp correction to get back on the pavement. Michael Sbihli watched the bus cross the center line and swerve for more than three miles while taking his children to school.
Sbihli said district leaders told him the driver would not be on a route Tuesday afternoon. The school system told FOX8 the bus driver had a medical emergency but took students home after school Tuesday with a monitor on board.
Sbihli said he had to step up and say something before someone’s child gets hurt.
“I was driving my kids to school this morning…one of the kids in my car could have been on that bus,” he said.
Sbihli was driving along N.C. 150 behind Guilford County Schools bus 1294 headed to Northern Guilford Middle School around 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday.
He captured a six-minute video on the stretch between Royster Road and Spencer-Dixon Road. The bus driver crossed the solid yellow center line.
“As we got following…it veered into oncoming traffic which was concerning at that point,” Sbihli said.
There were a few times when the driver had to swerve to avoid oncoming traffic.
Fast forward a few minutes, and the wheels of the bus left the road and ended up in the grass with debris flying as the driver veered back on the road.
“The only reason it didn’t continue into the ditch or tip over is because it looks like there was a driveway there that kind of bumped it back upright and back onto the road…that point, I kind of was like, ‘whoa. This is an issue,'” Sbihli said.
About 30 seconds later, the bus stops at the light, and you can see what appears to be children moving around in the back. FOX8 asked the district how many children were on board at the time, and it didn’t have an answer.
“There were kids on that bus,” Sbihli said. “I saw them bouncing around inside the bus as that happened.”
Sbihli called the district’s transportation office to share what he witnessed.
“I called them back about 20 to 30 minutes later to follow up because I was concerned that the driver was still out there, and they said that they had no recollection of the call,” he said.
Sbihli said he filed another report with the transportation department and also called the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.
FOX8 asked the school system what was next for the driver. A spokesperson said there are processes in place to handle these situations.