An elementary school student was just seconds away from being involved in a tragic incident.

State police are investigating this incident that involves a reckless driver endangering the life of a child.

This is a serious but unusual situation that occurred in Washington Township and transportation and law officials are sending a message to drivers to pay attention.

Just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, a school bus for General McLane School District was on a routine stop when a white SUV was caught on surveillance passing the bus on the right side at a high rate of speed.

The footage from inside of the bus shows the car nearly hitting a student approaching in the 3400 block of Route 6N.

This act breaks Pennsylvania’s school bus law that states when you see the red signal lights flashing, you must stop at least 10 feet away.

“You cannot move or pass the bus until the red lights and the stop sign has been deactivated the violation carries a 60-day license suspension, five points on your license and a $250 fine plus court costs,” said Sgt. Todd Eaglen, Edinboro Police.

According to General McLane’s transportation director, these incidents unfortunately happen almost everyday, but this situation is unusual because the white SUV traveled where the student was boarding.

“It should never happen with red lights and stop signs and everything else visible on the vehicle,” said Dave Cannon, transportation director for the General McLane School District. “We had two more that were on the left side of the vehicle this morning.”

Current busses have cameras on the drivers side of the vehicle but the district is in the process of adding surveillance to the pick up side as well.

“About a year ago we signed a contract with a company called Bus Patrol which is apart of Pennsylvania’s automated stop arm system,” Cannon said. “That actually has license plate reader technology in it so we won’t count of being able to read the plate through a camera system it will actually record the plate digitally.”

This technology is expected to be installed this winter. For the safest outcome, Cannon encourages parents to guide their students to steps to the bus.

Anyone with information regarding the identity of the driver or the vehicle is asked to call state police in Girard. That number is 814-774-9611.