{"id":222765,"date":"2026-04-08T00:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T00:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:57:13","slug":"former-florida-school-bus-driver-released-on-30k-bond-after-train-crash-with-29-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222765\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Florida school bus driver released on $30K bond after train crash with 29 students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dx78pag70x9qpawr.jpg\" alt=\"Former Sumter County school bus driver released on $30K bond\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. &#8211; A former Sumter County school bus driver who allegedly put 29 students in danger when choosing to enter a railroad crossing with an incoming train was granted a $1,000 bond per student on the bus.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/screenshot-2026-04-07-170101.png\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Yvonne Hampton, 67, attended a first appearance on April 7, 2026. (Source: Sumter County courts) <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Before a Sumter County judge, April 7, Yvonne Hampton, 67, was granted bond after she was accused of two misdemeanor counts \u2013 reckless driving and culpable negligence \u2013 and 29 counts of child neglect without great bodily harm.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WOFL\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Hampton was released on bond, and was seen entering a red pickup truck with a male driver around 5:30 p.m. When asked what Hampton would say to the 29 children on the bus, she got into the truck and didn&#8217;t respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WOFL\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Hampton&#8217;s charges come after the Sumter County Sheriff&#8217;s office and Sumter County School District said she knowingly<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/news\/florida-school-bus-driver-fired-after-train-crash-30-passengers-onboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> entered a railroad crossing in Bushnell<\/a> \u2013 resulting in the back of the bus being hit by a CSX train.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/news\/florida-school-bus-driver-fired-after-train-crash-30-passengers-onboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida school bus driver arrested after train crash with 29 students onboard<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/screenshot-2026-04-07-174046.png\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Yvonne Hampton, 67, is released on bond on April 7, 2026.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The sheriff&#8217;s office said Hampton &#8220;made the decision to cross the railroad tracks after she saw the railroad warning system activate,&#8221; an arrest report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Due to not having any prior convictions, prosecutors said they weren&#8217;t opposed to a &#8220;reasonable bond.&#8221; Hampton was issued two $500 bonds for the misdemeanors and $29,000 for the child neglect counts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Upon the conditions set by the court, Hampton was ordered to not have contact with any occupants of bus, not communicate with family of children, not return to school and not drive a bus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information in this story was gathered from Sumter County courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/sumter-county\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sumter County News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. &#8211; A former Sumter County school bus driver who allegedly put 29 students in danger&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,115,3315,628],"class_list":["post-222765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-news","tag-sumter-county","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}