Grandfather Recounts Grandson's Runaway Bus Ordeal
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The grandfather of one of the kids caught on a runaway school bus says he can't believe no one was hurt.
On Wednesday afternoon, dash cam video captured an Isle school bus driving erratically in Aitkin County.
At one point the bus goes in the ditch, and then somehow drives back out.
Later, the bus almost hits a car head-on. The driver had to go in reverse to get out of the way.
"Initially I didn't think it was as bad as it really was. When I saw the video on TV, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, that's pretty bad,'" grandfather Alan Brevitz said.
The dash cam video captured by an Aitkin County deputy gave Brevitz a better understanding of what his grandson went through.
Eight-year-old Landon was one of 11 kids on the bus.
"He said, 'I was crying like everybody else on the bus.' And apparently somebody had called 911," Brevitz said.
For nearly 15 minutes, the bus weaved across Highway 47. At one point it went into a ditch and almost tipped over.
"Lucky it didn't, cuz they don't have seatbelts. And you know, if he was sitting on the right side he would have been thrown pretty hard to the left," Brevitz said. "Glad I wasn't there. I would've been scared too!"
You can still see the tracks where the bus went into the ditch and then back out again.
Brevitz says Landon gets dropped off at his house every day after school. But the driver overshot their stop by several miles.
Stop sticks were used to finally get the bus to stop near the town of Glen.
"The way he talked he said the driver got sick and he wouldn't stop the bus," Brevitz said.
The driver, 68-year-old Scott Gilbertson, is out of the hospital but hasn't returned to work.
Brevitz says he's just thankful Landon and everyone else was okay.
"We're just glad that nobody got hurt, and hopefully the driver will be alright," he said.
Sheriff Scott Turner says Gilbertson had a medical emergency.
Superintendent Dean Kapsner says he's proud of how the students handled the situation.
He says some of the older kids helped keep the younger kids calm during the incident, and a few called 911.