[imagesource: YouTube / ABC News]

An out of control truck is the stuff nightmares are made of and being behind the wheel of said truck can be as scary, if not more so, than watching it barrel towards you.

Despite what the time stamp on the video says, the incident below took place last Tuesday at around 8:25AM near Cleveland, Ohio.

A school bus en route to Ralph E. Waite Elementary School was almost taken out when a truck driver lost control of his tractor-trailer.

According to Montville police chief Matthew Neil, who spoke with CNN, the bus had pulled over at the side of the road to pick up children when the sound of the truck’s horn rang out:

The truck driver realized his brakes were not working and began downshifting the vehicle to prevent it from crashing into the bus, Neil told CNN.

In the videos released by the Montville Police Department, the truck’s dashcam was also rolling and captured the terrified driver’s reaction as he approached the school bus. The driver let out several screams as he weaved between the school bus and a pick-up truck that was stopped in the lane running in the opposite direction.

Credit to the driver of the pick-up truck, Josh Click, for reversing to make space.

In doing so, he had to collide with the car behind him. You can see the dashcam footage from around 40 seconds in:

Eventually, the truck came to a stop around 400 metres down the road, where the driver immediately called his employer to notify them of what happened:

“I think the driver of the semi-truck dealt with this failure in the most professional manner possible,” Neil said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better response when it comes to avoiding what could’ve been a catastrophic accident. We don’t have enough ambulances in this county to supply the needs of the patients if he would’ve hit that bus and had injuries. I’m just so thankful that his professional actions helped avoid a crisis.”

The next step is figuring out what went wrong with the truck and inspections have been ongoing for days.

[source:cnn]