The man who caused a loaded school bus to crash on Route 30 in May 2017 will serve five to 20 years in prison, a Lancaster County judge ruled on Aug. 3, according to a story in Lancaster Online.

Tom Knapp reports that “James P. Irvin III, now 48, was driving on a suspended license when he caused the multiple-vehicle collision that toppled a Lancaster Mennonite School bus carrying 14 students on May 17, 2017.”

According to a story at themennonite.org on May 17, 2017, “A school bus transporting 14 Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Mennonite School students to the school’s Lancaster and Locust Grove campuses was involved in a four-vehicle crash in East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania, on the morning of May 17. All 14 students and one driver were transported to Lancaster General Hospital. The driver of another car was also injured.”

Irvin fled the scene of the crash but turned himself in a week later. He said he feared the consequences of driving on a suspended license.

“He was found guilty on all of nearly 70 charges stemming from the incident after a nonjury trial,” Knapp writes. Judge Howard Knisely, who returned the guilty verdict on May 16, 2018, issued sentence on Aug. 3.

Noam Weaver, who was 6 years old at the time of the accident, was ejected from the bus and pinned beneath the heavy vehicle, suffering numerous injuries. A 16-year-old boy suffered a fractured vertebra. Nine other students were also injured.

Sheri Weaver, Noam’s mother, said her son “fought for his life” after the accident, undergoing numerous surgeries and blood transfusions, and learning to rely on his left hand because of nerve damage to his right, according to Knapp.

Donald Cairns, whose son suffered broken vertebrae and a concussion in the crash, chastised Irvin for never reaching out to the families of the injured children, the article states.

Lancaster Mennonite Superintendent Pamela Tieszen asked the judge for “restorative justice,” noting that Irvin’s actions have changed the lives of the school’s entire student body and faculty.

At the sentencing, Irvin said: “I am truly, truly sorry for all of the negative impacts….I really don’t have an excuse.”