Truck driver who passed school bus sentenced to year in jail, two years of probation

WILLMAR - The truck driver alleged to have frightened a 13-year-old girl by passing a school bus on the right in May was sentenced Wednesday to one year in the Kandiyohi County Jail.
Allen Howard Morris, 48, of Apple Valley, was convicted of gross misdemeanor passing a school bus on the right when its amber signals are displayed.
Morris was sentenced to one year in jail, with four months stayed for two years. He was also placed on two years of probation with conditions including writing a letter of apology and paying a $1,000 fine.
As part of a plea agreement, a misdemeanor charge of disobeying a school bus stop arm was dismissed Wednesday.
The criminal complaint charged that Morris was driving a tractor-trailer rig around 7 a.m. May 30 on Minnesota Highway 23 near 175th Street at the time Alexis Schwartz was waiting for the school bus in her driveway. A camera mounted to the bus showed a tractor-trailer rig passing the school bus on the right after the bus door was open and its warning lights and stop arm were activated.
An investigating State Patrol officer received a voicemail from Morris regarding the incident at 6:30 p.m. May 30. In subsequent interviews, Morris told the officer he was looking at a field as he was driving. He looked up, saw the bus and realized he could not stop in time.
Morris was on his way from Barron, Wisconsin, to Willmar at the time of the incident. The young girl and her family live north of Hawick.