Bus driver runs red lights as parents and students plead for him to stop, Florida cops say

A bus driver taking students on a graduation trip in Florida is accused of endangering nearly 40 people by driving impaired and refusing pleas to stop.

Keith Edward Shifflett, 55, now faces dozens of charges in connection with the May 25 incident.

His case information is not available in Highlands County court records.

That evening, Shifflett left Sebring High School carrying 36 students and chaperones for a Projection Graduation trip to Daytona Beach, according to an arrest report from the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.

He was driving a Holiday Coach Lines charter bus when he “ran three red lights and was operating the bus in a reckless manner,” deputies said.

Those on board pleaded with the driver to slow down and stop, but he refused, officials said, and someone on board called 911.

In the background of the 911 call, the passengers can be heard screaming at the bus driver.

“There’s something wrong with him,” the caller said, asking the operator to have police hurry. “He needs to have a sobriety test.”

Eventually, a parent driving with the group in a separate vehicle pulled in front of the bus and braked, forcing the driver to stop, deputies said.

When law enforcement arrived on the scene, they believed the man to be impaired, and he was arrested.

In addition to the chaperones, many of the students on board were 18 or over, and six were under the age of 18, officials said.

Shifflett was charged with 30 counts of culpable negligence and four counts of child abuse without great bodily harm, according to the arrest report.

Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman expressed pride in the parents who pulled in front of the bus to stop it.

“We will never know what the outcome would have been, but we can assume that through the actions of those parents and those people that got involved, they prevented a huge tragedy from happening somewhere between here and Daytona,” Blackman said, according to WFLA.

Shifflett worked for Holiday Coach Lines for over seven years and has now been fired, the company told McClatchy News in an email.

“Keith, and all of our other drivers have always passed the necessary drug and alcohol screenings including random testing presented to them,” according to the company’s president Michael Kanago.

He said Holiday would be conducting an internal investigation, and he apologized to the students and chaperones involved.

“In over 32 years of business we have never had a situation like this, but we will act and do everything to make sure it will not repeat itself,” Kanago said.

Project Graduation organizes supervised and alcohol-free events for graduating students. The event wasn’t affiliated with Sebring High School, deputies said.

Sebring is an 80-mile drive east from Bradenton.