Driver who nearly hit 2 siblings as they exited school bus in front of their mom gets probation

A 29-year-old woman was spared jail Thursday after admitting to nearly hitting two siblings with her pickup truck after the pair got off a school bus in east-central Minnesota as their waiting mother watched in horror.

Brianna C. Johnson, 29, of Willow River, Minn., had a one-year jail sentence set aside in Pine County District Court and was put on probation for two years in connection with the incident on Dec. 21, 2023, near Willow River.

Terms of her probation include performing 100 hours of community work service, writing a letter of apology and paying $585 in fines and fees.

Her admission came under what is known as an Alford plea, meaning she maintained her innocence but acknowledged there was ample evidence for a conviction on a gross-misdemeanor count of failing to obey a school bus signal arm.

Johnson’s license has remained revoked since a month before the incident stemming from her refusal to be tested by law enforcement in connection with a drunken driving case, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Video from a bus-mounted camera provided by the Willow River school district to the Sheriff’s Office showed an 11-year-old girl exiting the bus on County Road 41 just north of town on the afternoon of Dec. 21, 2023, and walking calmly across the opposite lane to her mother waiting in a vehicle.

However, her 8-year-old brother, while trailing behind her and heading to the same vehicle, had to make a mad dash to the other side as the pickup swerved onto the shoulder around a van and nearly went in a ditch as it bore down on the youngster.

All this happened as the bus' stop arm and red flashing lights were activated, the video shows.

“I don’t know how my son saw that vehicle and was able to run all the way across the road in time,” the children’s mother, Margaret Borchardt, told the court in her written victim impact statement, “how he didn’t trip on the laces of his untied boots, why the vehicle never honked to warn the children, or why the vehicle never slowed down but continue to speed directly towards them.

“That moment I was their mom, and I was helpless. I couldn’t save my children. ... This moment haunts me. The fear of losing one or both of my children while witnessing it and not being able to do anything.”

Borchardt said her son was traumatized from that day and many more afterward.

“He ran straight to me with a face pale and white,” she said. “He said, ‘Mom, I almost died.’ ... He cried more than I have ever seen. I tried to comfort him and put him in the safety of my vehicle while scrambling to call his father, Deputy [Aaron] Borchardt.”

Even 14 months later, Borchardt revealed, her son is “the first one off the bus, and he rushes across the road as fast as he can.”

According to the charges:

The driver of the van told law enforcement that he tried to follow the fleeing motorist, but he lost the pickup despite reaching 70 miles per hour. He said he gave up the chase because he had children with him.

Six days later, the Sheriff’s Office posted on social media a plea to the public for information leading to the pickup driver. An arrest soon followed.

Johnson had borrowed the pickup from the owner on the day of the bus incident to go to a store because hers had broken down, the charges said. However, she never returned the truck to the man.