Surveillance Video Released From Transit Bus That Ran Over Broward Teen
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Broward County Transit officials released surveillance video Tuesday that shows an accident where a 14-year-old boy was trying to get on a county bus, fell and was run over.
Around 9 am last Friday in Pompano Beach cameras on a Broward County bus were rolling and showed 14-year-old Jerry Cunningham running to get on. On a camera inside the bus, we see what the bus driver saw -- two women paying. Just outside the bus, Cunningham is trying to get in and a witness says the boys' arm was stuck in the door.
Several of the people on the bus tried to alert the driver, but after just a few seconds of running to keep up with the bus, Cunningham fell to the ground.
People onboard the bus started screaming. The bus driver -- Reinaldo Soto -- stopped the bus, ran off too check on the boy then quickly got back inside to call for help.
Brian Clark was one of the passengers.
"I saw the kids hand," he told CBS 4 News on Friday. "The kid was trying to get on the bus, everybody on the bus was screaming stop."
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed the boys' mother throwing off her shoes and frantically racing to her son. Brian Clark told us last Friday the boys' injuries were severe.
"911 was asking questions," he said. "(I'm saying) there''s blood coming out of his ears, his mouth, his nose."
Cunningham was rushed to the hospital with his parents by his side. The video raises new questions, like did the driver drive off before the doors were completely shut and was the driver able to see Jerry Cunningham or was his view blocked because of the passengers standing near the door.
We wanted to ask Reinaldo Soto those questions but no one answered the door at his home. Soto is on administrative leave while the accident is investigated. His personnel file shows Soto has had three preventable accidents in a county bus since 2004. He's been a county bus driver since 2002.
