A 23-year-old Summerville woman is facing multiple charges after North Charleston police say she led officers on a chase through city streets while driving a school bus with her young son aboard, ultimately placing the boy in front of her in an apparent attempt to shield herself from officers. Shakira Jones was booked on charges of failure to stop for blue lights and sirens, driving under the influence and child endangerment.
According to live5news.com, police received an alert around 3:20 p.m. Thursday reporting that a school bus was being driven erratically down Palmetto Commerce Parkway after nearly striking another vehicle. Officers who spotted the bus said it was traveling around 65 mph in a posted 45 mph zone and made multiple improper and erratic lane changes before they attempted to pull it over.
Per WCIV, officers activated their emergency lights and sirens on Ashley Phosphate Road as they moved to stop the bus, which had already made an improper turn onto that road. Rather than pulling over, the bus accelerated after turning onto Peppermill Parkway, prompting officers to pursue it through the area, the station reported.
Bus Stopped, Then Sped Toward Campus
The bus briefly stopped near Mill Ridge Lane, but the driver then made an erratic right turn, heading toward Stall High School as officers attempted a high-risk traffic stop, the station's report states. The bus stopped a second time before Jones reportedly shifted it back into drive after initially placing it in park, then accelerated into a parking lot where school staff were present, forcing them to move out of the way to avoid the bus and the pursuing officers.
The bus came to a final stop, but Jones refused officers' commands to exit, according to the same account. Authorities said she was arrested only after a brief struggle. During that struggle, police reported that Jones placed her child in front of her in an attempt to shield herself from officers, who then removed the boy safely. Investigators determined the child aboard the bus was Jones’s son.
Amphetamines Found, Field Sobriety Tests Administered
Officers reportedly located a bottle of prescribed amphetamines among Jones’s belongings within arm's reach of the driver's seat. Jones consented to standardized field sobriety testing, and the administering officer concluded there was probable cause that she had been driving while impaired, per the same account. Jones was booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center, where no bond had been issued at the time of the report.
South Carolina's child-welfare statute, cited in cases like this one, makes it unlawful for a person responsible for a child's welfare to place that child at unreasonable risk of harm affecting the child's life, physical or mental health, or safety, according to the South Carolina State Legislature. The law also covers unlawfully or maliciously causing bodily harm that endangers a child's life or health, or willfully abandoning a child.
Not an Isolated Case Nationally
Dangerous-driving incidents involving school bus operators have surfaced elsewhere recently. In Verona, Wisconsin, officers arrested a school bus driver after a report of dangerous driving while students were aboard, with parents noticing erratic behavior during the first afternoon route, according to wkow.com. No one was hurt in that incident, and police there ruled out alcohol as a factor, though the driver may have struck a traffic sign outside the city. The bus contractor in that case, First Student, sent a replacement bus so students could transfer to a different driver and said it had terminated the driver's employment while cooperating with investigators.
No such details about Jones's employment, including whether she was working as a bus driver at the time, have been confirmed in connection with the North Charleston case. The final bond amount, any future court dates and the case's ultimate disposition also remain unresolved as of the latest reporting.
