Video of a Florida school bus driver texting while operating a bus loaded with children has went viral.
An eighth-grade student recorded video of the driver using a cellphone while driving a bus packed with middle school students in a suburb in Tampa last Friday. In the video, the Hillsborough County school bus driver appears to drive with one hand on the wheel while looking down at her phone, which was in the other hand.
The 14-year-old girl who secretly filmed the dangerous act showed the video to her mother Venus Cotto-Silva who said "I just couldn't believe it," reports ABC News. Originally, the student planned to tape video to gather evidence that the driver uses profanity. Instead, the video appears to show the woman drifting into another lane while texting. Eventually, the driver looks up from her phone and suddenly grabs the wheel with both hands just in time to avoid traffic.
"The scary part is, see how quickly she grabbed the wheel?" Cotto-Silva said.
"Not only are they going to kill the driver, they're going to kill those children on that bus," the concerned mother added.
Calling it a violation of policy, the school district said in a statement, "Clearly the driver is looking at her cellphone. That's a dangerous distraction for any driver, but the potential danger is greater when you have a bus full of children."
The unidentified driver was reportedly suspended and a spokesman for Hillsborough County Public Schools told WFTS-TV that the driver in question has been removed from her route.
Technically, the driver under did not break the law; however, being that texting while driving is not yet illegal in the state of Florida, though that will change on Oct. 1 when a new law banning the practice goes into effect.
Watch video of the driver texting below:
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