‘I knew there was a problem;’ Parents of children on school bus with ‘reckless’ driver speak out

Parents are speaking out after a school bus driver was stopped for “reckless” driving with students on board in Miami County, Tuesday afternoon.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, a Bethel Local Schools bus driver is now under investigation for reckless operation and possible OVI.

TRENDING STORIES:

As previously reported by News Center 7, the bus was stopped on State Route 571 and South Palmer Road, about two and a half miles away from the district’s campus.

>>PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Witness details moments before father, deputies stopped ‘reckless’ school bus driver in Miami County

Parents said one of the strangest things about this bus trip was that the driver went past the school two or three times.

“I knew there was a problem,” one parent said.

This parent didn’t want to be identified because her husband works for the district.

Her fourth-grade daughter was the oldest child on the bus, and she had a smartwatch.

“When I opened that, I saw that she had just messaged me saying that her bus driver doesn’t know what she’s doing,” she said.

The mother played a couple of voice messages she got from her daughter to News Center 7’s Mike Campbell.

“She does not know what she’s doing,” one message said.

“She just went off the road… like half the bus went off and we went sideways,” another message said.

“Help me!” the last message said.

The woman got in her car, called her husband, and they both drove around looking for the bus.

Her husband found it before deputies responding to 911 calls.

He pulled in front of the bus, bringing an end to about 35 minutes of bizarre driving.

The father demanded that his child be let off the bus. The first time he tried to stop the bus, the driver just kept going.

These parents said a total of seven kids were on board during the ride.

“She told me that she had a bad bus driver and she was going off the road and that a guy stopped the bus and was yelling at the driver,” Vanessa Weingart, another Bethel Schools parent, said.

Weingart said her husband thought their kindergarten daughter witnessed a possible road rage incident until they spoke with other parents.

“There are a lot of what-ifs, and that’s the hard part,” she added.

Many of the parents who had children on that bus tell News Center 7 their students will be riding to school in cars.

We will continue to follow this story.

[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]