Hit-and-run bus driver gets community service
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Judge Tom Keith sentenced a Bentonville school-bus driver Monday to 100 hours of community service. Donald Espeseth, 75, pleaded guilty April 28 to leaving the scene of an accident.
Espeseth was charged after his bus passed over one of his departing passengers, 6-year-old Tyson Huffman, at 4 p.m. Nov. 5 in Bella Vista. The boy suffered a laceration on his head that required four staples to close.
Bentonville School District officials said after the accident that Espeseth had followed all the proper safety protocols but had failed to count the number of children leaving the bus to ensure that all had safely crossed the road.
Witnesses said it appeared Huffman stopped in front of the bus and bent over, as if to pick something up, and removed himself from the driver's view. They believed something on the bus's undercarriage cut the boy's head.
Espeseth maintained throughout the proceedings that he did not know the accident had occurred. When he pleaded guilty, he told the judge he did not learn about the accident until the next morning.
The defendant's lack of knowledge of the accident initially delayed Keith's acceptance of Espeseth's guilty plea. Keith asked the legal counsel to find legal precedent that would allow a person to plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident he or she did not realize had happened.
Espeseth was also ordered to pay $ 920 in various fees and restitution.
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