Caught on camera: 5-year-old boy dragged by school bus

Earlier this month 5-year-old William from Brant County was dragged by a school bus right in front of his house. A security camera captured the scary situation. William is okay, but his father, Darek Tappen says something should be done this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“I was freaking out. I didn’t know what was really happening at that moment. I just knew that he was trapped and I had to get him away,” Tappen said.

While William was getting off the school bus on Nov. 1 the doors closed on him and the bus drove off. It happened right in front of their home in Mount Pleasant, just south of Brantford.

“My first son got off just fine. My second son, William, put his feet on the ground, at which time the doors wrapped in around him, trapping him, getting to the bottom step. I started yelling and screaming for the bus to stop,” Tappen said.

Fortunately, the bus driver did stop and 5-year-old William wasn’t hurt.

The Grand Erie District School Board along with the school transportation company did do an investigation and found the bus was operating properly. Tappen believes it was a driver error and the doors closed too soon. He says he would like to see sensors installed on school bus doors, so this won’t happen to another child.

The Grand Erie District School Board says the incident has been shared with other transportation groups across the province to bring attention and awareness so the incident doesn’t happen again. The bus company, Voyago says the driver has been suspended while an investigation takes place. Voyago also says nothing like this has happened in the company’s 40 years of operations.

Tappen says William is a little shaken up over the incident and hasn’t gotten back on the bus since. For now, he will be driving his son to school.