A normal ride from school could have turned into a tragedy if a girl wasn’t able to hang on tightly to the straps of her backpack.
The girl in Santa Rosa County, Florida, had school bus doors close on her backpack, trapping her in the door. She was dragged for more than 300 feet, about the length of a football field, reported KATU.
The parent of another student who was on the bus arrived a few minutes after the incident.
“She was kind of hanging in the air. Her feet were somewhat dragging, but she said that she was trying to keep them somewhat up, elevated to not be run over by the tire. Her friend, who was not stuck in the door, was running next to the bus screaming at the driver to stop,” he said.
The worried parent didn’t want to show his face on camera since his daughter was still on the bus. He got a message from his daughter that said, “Hey we are going to be a little boy [sic] late a girl got her foot ran over bye [sic] the bus,” KATU reported. He and his wife then immediately dashed to the bus.
“When we got there the bus was off. We stood and talked for about 10 minutes and we said, ‘Hey, we need to turn the A/C on for the kids on the bus’, and they started the bus and then the bus driver left the scene—before even paramedics or anyone had arrived,” the parent said.
The parent submitted a screenshot of his phone text message as proof that he called 911 first after he got the message from their daughter. He said that this disproves the statements made by Santa Rosa County Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick in an interview on May 31 on NewsRadio 92.3.
Wyrosdick said in the interview, “It went just a few feet and it dropped the student to the ground. The bus driver immediately noticed there was an issue, of course, and stopped the bus and did the appropriate action, calling EMS, calling the school in an effort to get the parents on scene.”
“That didn’t happen,” the parent told KATU, “And the fact that she left the scene, that wasn’t covered either. Also, they say that she was only drug a few feet. Seven households is not a few feet. I haven’t put a tape measure on it, but it’s quite a distance. If the little girl hadn’t held onto her backpack straps, more than likely she would have let go and fallen underneath the bus tires and could have been severely injured or fatally injured.”
Wyrosdick later adjusted his statements and said that the girl was dragged for 20 seconds: more than 360 feet, outside the bus.
“She had road rash on her left or right leg, all the way up to her shorts,” the dad said. “There were some markings on her calf, down to her leg. Her two toes were bleeding. Nothing looked like it was broken, but there was definitely some blood coming from her toes and she was obviously distressed.”
KATU tried to contact the parents of the girl, but they didn’t want to go on camera. They said that she was recovering and that Florida Highway Patrol was investigating, adding that the driver will probably be charged.
The concerned parent of the other student on the bus said that he didn’t think that the driver should be fired but that basic security measures should have been observed, adding that the district needs to improve its response plan, particularly when it’s about reporting incidents to distressed parents.
Wyrosdick didn’t want to talk to KATU, rather he referred them to Student Transportation of America, a private company that is hired by the school district to take charge of student transportation services.
Doug Coupe, the Director of Communications sent a statement that says, “While we are reviewing the incident internally, we continue to work closely with law enforcement and the school district to do everything we can to assist with their ongoing investigation.”
A surveillance video from the bus was also requested by Channel 3 News.
“I wish it would be released,” said the parent. “To know from point of drop-off to seven houses later, what was going on during those precious seconds? Was the bus driver on her phone? Was she looking around? Was there a distraction going on? Why didn’t she stop the bus immediately?”
