Exclusive: School bus camera captures close call with train

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Eyewitness News has obtained video from inside a Klein ISD school bus that was nearly struck by a train earlier this month.

The incident happened February 10 as a bus zoned to Klein Oak High School crossed the intersection of Northcrest and Root Road. The driver is seen stopping at the train tracks, and then proceeds to cross even after seeing a train coming. The driver then seen stopping that bus after crossing the tracks.

"I guess we'll just sit here for a while," the bus driver stated in the video.

"I ran up to the front. And braced myself for impact because I knew that if train would have hit us, I would have been dead back there," said 15-year-old bus rider Harold Vanalstyne. "I thought I was going to die. I thought it was going to be the last breath I took."

Vanalstyne said all the over kids on the bus were scared too. In the bus video, you can hear the students yelling at the bus driver to move forward. The train was seen zooming by and missed the bus by just feet.

"I told her that she's crazy, you know. That's insane," said Vanalstyne who also had a brother on that bus.

Klein ISD said the bus driver was immediately suspended and then fired following an investigation, but parents say that's not enough. Vanalstyne's father said he wants the driver to be charged criminally.

"There was a lot of kids' lives in danger there," said Vanalstyne's father. "They could have been gone. All them kids could have been gone. We all know what trains do."

Klein ISD said the bus driver was immediately suspended after the incident and then fired following an investigation.