JAY – A Newport truck driver was sentenced Thursday to 100 hours of cleaning buses and taking 10 school bus trips with students after being convicted of passing a stopped school bus.
Keith Berry, 51, was found guilty by a jury of the violation, which occurred on March 3 on Route 4 in Jay.
In his sentence, Justice Joseph Jabar required Berry to sit behind the driver on his 10 bus trips. He also has to pay a $1,000 fine. He’ll serve his community service in Newport.
Jay bus driver Polly Given, who recounted the ordeal for jurors last week, said Tuesday she was scared to death. She heard the logging truck air horn and looked up to see the truck coming toward the school bus, which was carrying 40 middle and high school students.
She said a student had just stepped off the bus at Chickadee Avenue on Jay Hill on Route 4 when she heard the air horn and looked up.
“It took 10 years off my life,” Given said. “I could do nothing. … I must have covered my head.”
The next thing she knew, she said, she saw the back of the truck and logs going by her mirrors.
Berry told police on March 3 that he had done what he could to stop and to avoid an accident once he spotted the stopped bus with its flashing red lights.
Berry was driving a 95,000-pound truck down the south side of Jay Hill, and a van was stopped in his lane and a school bus was stopped in the opposite lane, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson said Tuesday.
Berry was going too fast to stop, Robinson said, and he didn’t want to rear-end the van, so he went toward the bus into the opposite lane and veered back into his lane in front of the van and stopped half-way past the bus.
“In Maine, you’re required to stop before reaching the school bus,” Robinson said.
The sentence was tailored to address the situation, he said.
Berry had prior convictions of failing to stop for a school bus, operating under the influence, operating after suspension and several speeding violations, Robinson said.
“I think the jury’s verdict reflected that they felt he should have been going slower and he would be able to stop. The results of this trial were very appropriate to the conduct and addressed all the concerns of the state.”
In Berry’s statement to Jay police, he wrote that he started to brake immediately and downshifted to a lower gear after he saw the school bus with its lights on.
“I continued to brake all the way down the hill until I got close to the situation realizing I couldn’t stop,” Berry wrote. “There was traffic in front of me and a bus in the other lane and knowing I couldn’t stop and trying to avoid an accident, I went in the other lane and serpentined around the van and the bus. I went between both and avoiding an accident.”
Once he realized he couldn’t stop, Berry stated, he hit the air horn to warn everybody.
Berry was working for McPherson Timberlands of Canaan and was on his way to deliver wood to IP in Jay when the incident happened. He stated he was going about 45 mph, which is the speed limit.
Berry’s attorney, Schuyler Steele of Newport, was not available for comment Tuesday.
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