A 5-year-old Minnesota girl was hit while crossing the street after leaving her school bus on Nov. 14.
The girl was crossing the street around 3 p.m. in Byron when a 17-year-old male driver ignored the school bus’s stop arm and warning lights and hit her, according to the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office.
The student suffered an injury to her leg and was rushed to a local hospital, reported KTTC.
Officials said an investigation has been launched and that the driver will face criminal charges.
Neither the driver nor the student has been identified as of yet.
At approximately 3:15 p.m., one of our students was involved in an accident with an approaching vehicle when crossing the street after exiting the bus. Students that were on the bus were transferred to another bus driven by our Transportation Manager, Val Lindahl,” Byron Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Joey Page said in an email sent to parents late Wednesday, reported KAAL.
He said the student was being evaluated.
School Bus Accidents
The accident is the latest involving students being hit by drivers who ignore the stop arm and warning lights, which is illegal.
In late October and early November, 14 people, mostly students, were hit at school bus stops in just three days, leaving five people dead.
Alyssa Shepherd, who hit four children, three of whom died, in Indiana on Oct. 30 was charged with reckless homicide.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (pdf), there were 1,172 school-transportation related fatal motor vehicle crashes between 2006 and 2015. During that time, an average of 131 fatalities per year were attributed to those crashes.
Officers investigating the crashes urged drivers to be more careful, especially around rush hour.
“Sadly it takes a reminder like this that our school buses do share the highways with us, do share the roads, in morning, and evening traffic,” Mississippi Highway Patrol Master Sgt. Ray Hall told WCBI.
He said that drivers should be cautious anytime they see a school bus, even if it’s not loading or unloading students. “It may have already unloaded a child that’s a half mile down the road, you pass that school bus and that child, for some unknown reason, is in the middle of the road, so it’s not just loading and unloading, when you see a school bus, you need to be alert,” he said.
