THIS is the heart-stopping moment a driver who was on his cell phone, slammed into the back of a packed school bus during a pickup.
The terrifying incident was caught on home surveillance footage as a student left his house to board the bus just seconds before the crash in Madison, New York.
Jeremiah Rutkowski, 17, was left “paralyzed with shock” around 7:15 am on April 7 when the Dodge Ram truck rear-ended his school bus with a sickening crunch right in front of him.
“I just figured if that thing’s not going to stop, it’s either going to hit the bus and something’s coming flying at me — or the entire truck is coming flying at me,” he told WKTV.
In the video, he can be seen calmly walking towards the bus as it slowed with its warning lights on when suddenly the truck behind it plows into the back sending debris and smoke into the air.
The back of the bus was lifted onto the hood of the truck from the sheer force of the smash.
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Rutkowski quickly leapt back onto the porch to safety as the two vehicles came to a stop and his horrified father who heard the crash rushed out to help and immediately hugged his son when he realized he was okay.
Matt Rutkowski immediately went to check on the driver of the truck and all 23 kids plus the school bus driver while his son watched on in shock from the porch.
“My first priority was to make sure my son was safe and good,” he said.
“Opening that door, I wasn’t sure what would happen, so big sigh of relief. That’s why I instantly gave him a hug.”
The teenager ended up looking after some of the school children who were headed to Madison Central School at the time of the crash.
Four children and two adults were taken to hospital with minor injuries, police said.
The driver of the truck, 35-year-old Joshua Smith, had to be pulled out from under the bus and was one of those taken to hospital along with the two kids in his car, the driver of the bus, and two school children.
An investigation found that he had been following too closely and was distracted by his cell phone before the crash.
Smith has been hit with a number of tickets, police have said.
