A Tough Lesson Yet to be Learned by Many Motorists

Tragedy occurred this past week when a Raleigh, N.C., girl was struck and killed by a passing motorist after disembarking the school bus. Ashley Ramos-Ramirez was only 6-years old and a first grader. While technically not the new school year’s first fatality because Ashley attended a year-round elementary school, her senseless death at the hands of an 83-year old woman who said she didn’t see the school bus stop arm or flashing red lights calls attention to school bus safety, said Ashley’s principal.

“This is definitely something we can learn from to make sure...everyone understands school bus safety rules,” Green Elementary Principal Shelly Watson said.

Doubly unfortunate for Ashley’s family is that the driver is only facing misdemeanor charges because a new North Carolina law pass this summer that requires an automatic felony charges for anyone charged with killing a student while illegally passing a stopped school bus does not go into effect until Dec. 1.

The news article points to information on the School Transportation News Web site on the inherent safety of school buses, citing fatality data that shows more children are killed in the so-called "danger zone," the 10-foot perimeter around school buses as they are stopped to load or unload students.