Parents concerned about child safety often make headlines in a pre-emptive strike, yet other times it takes a tragedy to spur calls for improvement. For the Davis family of Temple Hills, Md., the tragedy that struck four years ago when they lost their daughter, Ashley, resulted in a jury awarding them $90 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit against Prince George’s County Board of Education.
Thirteen-year-old Ashley died days after being hit by a car on Sept. 1, 2009 while crossing the road to her bus stop. The car was traveling east when it struck her before also hitting a minivan and then a 17-year-old boy walking on the opposite side of the road, police said in initial reports.
Court documents state that the Prince George’s County BOE did not provide a safe bus stop for students who lived on the north side of Brinkley Road. After Davis’ bus driver “persistently negligently failed to stop at the correct bus stop,” the freshman in high school started taking another bus. Yet, the new route required Ashley to cross the street to the south side of Brinkley Road, said John Costello, an attorney for Davis’ parents.
He also argued that the school system did not provide safe and adequate transportation for Davis to get to school. Costello indicated to reporters that he expects the school system to appeal what may be a record-setting verdict in a bus stop death.
Recent STN research and the National School Bus Loading & Unloading Survey for the 2011-2012 school year reveals the majority of student fatalities occurred around school bus stops as opposed to the “danger zone” directly around the yellow bus. In the study conducted by the Kansas Department of Education, eight children were crossing the road to catch their bus when a vehicle hit them.
For the current school year and 2011-2012, a total of 22 students have been hit and killed while crossing the street to approach their bus or bus stop, according to STN, which tracks fatalities via media reports. The most recently recorded tragedy occurred in Harrells, N.C., when a hit-and-run driver struck a 7-year-old girl who had exited her bus and started to cross the road toward her mother on the other side. The truck driver has since been charged in her death and faces a possible DUI charge.
Parent activist Debbie Moore of Arlington, Texas, has been working hard to prevent tragedy from striking on an unsafe interstate bridge overpass that several dozen high school students have to walk across twice every school day, she said.
“It is the only way to walk to the school from my neighborhood and several others. Yet since we live within two miles of the school, bus service is not provided because the district deems this within ‘walkable distance,'” Moore told STN.
A few months ago, the city put up “No Pedestrian” on very corner and on both sides of the bridge, where there is no shoulder, no sidewalk and only a 3- to 4-foot cement wall barrier. Moore emphasized that if a vehicle accidentally swerved, a teen could be thrown off the bridge to the interstate highway below.
“If my daughter had to walk to school, she would have to walk across this bridge. Unfortunately for kids who don’t have another option, this is setting them up to be in a dangerous situation,” she noted.
“Until that bridge is expanded, they absolutely need to have bus service. It’s just a tragedy and lawsuits waiting to happen. The city put all those signs up just as a CYA. The district needs to give kids the option, bus or walk, and then they’ve covered their bases,” continued Moore.
“If they’re working on this, then I’m not aware of it.”
