Scott County driver charged in school bus stop accident that injured a kindergartener

BENTON, Mo. — A Scott County, Missouri, man faces charges 10 days after his vehicle struck a kindergartener at a bus stop near Morley, Missouri.

Brice Matthew Beussink, 19, of Oran, Missouri, is charged with one felony count of failure to stop for a school bus discharging school children, causing injury to a child, according to online court records.

According to the redacted probable cause statement by Missouri State Highway Patrol Corporal B. Pratt, at 3:33 p.m. Jan. 13, he was dispatched to a single-vehicle crash involving a pedestrian on U.S. Highway 61, south of Morley. When he arrived on scene, Pratt said he observed a male child lying in the southbound lanes of U.S. 61 being treated by multiple first responders. He also saw a stationary Scott County Central school bus sitting in the middle of the northbound lane with its lights and stop signs activated. Pratt said he made contact with the child’s mother, who said she was standing by the road with her children, waiting for her son to exit the bus. She said her son began crossing U.S. 61 when a pickup truck did not stop and struck her son. Pratt said he then talked to the school bus driver who said he was stopped for a routine bus stop, and as the child was crossing the street, the pickup truck did not stop and struck the child.

Pratt said he then saw the pickup truck on the shoulder of the southbound lane and the driver, who was later identified as Beussink, standing beside the truck. According to Pratt, Beussink gave a written statement at the scene, saying he saw the school bus but didn’t realize it was stopped. Beussink said he slammed on the brakes but he couldn’t go to the left because of the bus and couldn’t go to the right because he saw more children, the probable cause statement said.

Patrol Corporal J. Doyle arrived on scene and made contact with the driver of a vehicle that was stopped behind the school bus. That driver told the trooper he observed Beussink’s vehicle not stop for the school bus and strike the child in the roadway. A Patrol Crash Reconstructionist was requested and responded to the scene to assist with the traffic crash investigation, which was ongoing.

The child, who has been identified as 6-year-old Bryson Gaspard, was flown to a St. Louis hospital with serious injuries including a broken femur, pelvis, facial bones and teeth and possible brain bleed.

Beussink is slated to appear in court March 11 at the Scott County Courthouse.