School Bus Driver Sentenced for Fatal Hit-and-Run

A man who fatally struck a woman while driving a school bus in Brooklyn Center in March 2020 has been sentenced. 

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Monday that Jason Rynders, 35, from Big Lake was sentenced to 41 months of prison. Rynders was charged with one count of criminal vehicular homicide and pleaded guilty.

The criminal complaint says a man called police around 6:45 a.m. on March 16, 2020 saying he saw school bus was parked on the side of the road and then felt his vehicle hit something in the road. The complaint said the man got out of the car, realized it was a person and told the bus driver, who was standing outside the bus, to call 911. Instead, the report says, the bus driver got back inside the bus and drove away.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The complaint says a homeowner’s video surveillance system captured part of the collision and aftermath and the bus’s camera shows the bus appear to shudder and hit something. 

There were children inside of the bus at the time of the accident. None of the children was hurt. 

Brooklyn Center