Terrifying video shows students on a school bus narrowly escaping being hit by a freight train

A school bus driver from Texas was ousted from her job after a heart-stopping video emerged online showing the bus narrowly escaping being struck by a freight train.

The incident involving a Klein Independent School District bus took place on the afteoon of February 10 at the intersection of Northcrest Drive and Root Road.

A cellphone video recorded by a student on board the bus captures the moment the vehicle crosses the railroad tracks moments before a train zooms by, barely clearing the rear of the bus.

In the 30-second clip, which was shared on YouTube on February 13, teens are heard shrieking and yelling expletives as a freight train is seen through the windows rolling past the bus.

One boy is heard bellowing off-camera: 'Are you trying to kill me!?' Some teens are also heard laughing and joking about their supposed brush with death.

Klein Oak High School sophomore Harold VanAlstyne IV did not find the close call funny, telling the station KPRC he was terrified in the moment.

'I thought I was going to die,' he recalled. 'We were all screaming and telling her [the bus driver] to move forward. Everyone was just really freaking out.'

VanAlstyne recounted how he sprinted to the front of the bus and braced for impact, but the bus driver crossed the tracks just in the nick of time, avoiding a potentially deadly collision.

‘It could have been horrible. Just a few more inches and it could've been done,’ said Sharon VanAlstyne, who had two sons on that bus.

State law dictates that a driver cannot be closer than 15 feet to railroad tracks with a train in the distance.

Officials with the Klein Independent School District have released a statement saying that the bus driver blamed the incident on students who were 'too loud for the bus to be driven safely'.

The district employee was initially suspended but was later let go for breaching standard procedures when crossing the railroad track with the train approaching.

However, KPRC reported that the woman's daughter reached out to the station on social media claiming that her mother, a driver with 20 years of experience, was not fired but quit.

She also said students on board her mother's bus were out of control that day.