Elma School District issues statement on bus video; says police are investigating

Originally posted 6-6-19

Elma, WA – The Elma School District is looking into a video that was said to show an Elma school bus getting caught by a railroad crossing arm and driving across the tracks ahead of a train.

In a video posted to Facebook on June 4, it shows a bus underneath a crossing arm, catching the safety device on the roof, and driving across railroad crossing as the red warning lights on the arm flash.

WARNING: Video featured vulgarity.

While it does not show a train in the video and no horns can be heard, the video originally stated that “ train passed like 5-10 seconds after” before it was edited to state “train passed not long after”.

The video description also was edited to say “the bus was stopped on the tracks when the arms came down. I just happened to be behind and took a video when I saw it happen”.

On Wednesday, the Elma School District issued a statement saying that the incident occurred at a railroad crossing on 11th street in Elma.

It also states that “The District has asked the Elma Police Department to investigate the incident. The bus driver has been removed from driving responsibilities until the investigation is complete, at which time the transportation supervisor will take any appropriate personnel action”.

They say that their priority is student safety and that they will approach the incident with that priority, taking every necessary step to prevent this from happening in the future.

The district stated that the results of the investigation will be shared once it is complete.