Lodi school bus gets dangerously close to passing train with student inside

A Lodi Unified School District bus carrying one student narrowly missed being struck by a train on Monday morning.

The incident took place at 8 a.m. on Lodi Avenue, Lodi Unified district officials confirmed to The Sacramento Bee.

The incident was recorded by Lodi resident Justin Clubb, who arrived at the railroad crossing at the same time as the bus, and was driving behind it before he pulled over next to the bus..

The 51-second video, posted on Facebook, shows bus number 77 stopping dangerously close to a train blazing past it with the crossing arm sitting on the roof of the bus, unable to come completely down. Clubb could be heard in the video, surprised at what he was witnessing.

“This lady is lucky she didn’t die,” he said in the video.

Clubb said he witnessed the bus make a full stop and open its doors to look and listen for a train, in line with protocol.

“The the bus proceeded to move forward a little, and then the driver put the bus in reverse,” Clubb said in an interview with The Bee. “But the arm had already dropped on it, and it continued to drop on the bus three times. It just kept trying to come back up and come back down again.”

Clubb said when the bus went into reverse, away from the tracks, it looked as though it was about a foot away from the train.

“I thought the bus would get hit, and then I would get hit,” he said. “We were just lucky.”

At the time of the incident, Clubb said he wasn’t able to see if any students were on the bus.

Lodi Unified confirmed to The Bee one student was riding the bus. District officials, who are investigating the incident, said the child’s parents were notified.

The driver was a Lodi Unified employee, not a substitute bus driver.

“We are aware of a video circulating on social media that shows a Lodi USD bus stopped at a railroad crossing,” read a statement posted to Lodi’s Twitter account. “We understand and appreciate the concerns that have been voiced regarding this video. Safety remains our foremost priority in the district.”

California law requires schools buses stop at railroad crossings and check for trains.

At a railroad crossing, it is recommended that school buses stop between 15 and 50 feet from the tracks, place the transmission in park, turn off all radios, silence the passengers and look and listen for a train, according to the State of California Department of Motor Vehicles website.

If the gate comes down after a bus began to cross, the DMV website instructs the bus to drive through it, even if it means the bus will break the gate to ensure it is not in the path of the train.

Clubb’s daughter is a student in the district and takes buses to field trips. The incident doesn’t change how he feels about school bus safety.

“I rode buses growing up, and I will still trust bus drivers,” he said.