Child Killed In School Bus Incident
Written by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: K-6, News, People Involved, School bus safety, School Safety Issues, Students
This is one of the saddest posts that I have ever written. I know that I have written a lot about school safety and all sorts of issues that have occurred with regard to this topic but I do not think that I have actually written anything about child’s life being taken – albeit accidentally – in a school bus incident.
The incident occurred in Spring Mill Elementary School. According to The Indy Star, this is what happened:
Police are investigating the death of a fourth-grader who was struck by a school bus in the parking lot of a Far-Northside school. The 10-year-old boy had been dropped off by another bus Friday morning, but for some reason the driver didn’t park near the sidewalk where children are usually dropped off.
Christopher Beltz exited his bus and then ran through a row of parked cars, right into the path of another bus that had dropped off students near the sidewalk next to Spring Mill Elementary.
Christopher got out of a bus in the lane farthest from the school, then ran toward the school. He was found dead behind the second bus after it stopped.
Sally Fontaine, 48, Indianapolis, drove Bus 97, which hit Christopher, police said. She was sent to Wishard Memorial Hospital to take a blood test for drugs and alcohol, and no signs of intoxication were detected, police said. A check of her Indiana driving record found no violations. School bus driver Ingeborg Willis, 44, Indianapolis, had dropped the boy off.
This report was published on the 7th of February. A couple of days later, additional information was released. Apparently, Ingeborg Willis failed a drug and alcohol test in 1997 and was subsequently fired by Lawrence Township schools.
So how come she was working as a school bus driver now? There are no clear answers yet but if there is one thing that is for sure, it is that Willis should NOT have dropped the children off at the street. They should have been dropped off by the sidewalk, which is what is required of school bus drivers. The incident is still undergoing investigation but I see it as a stark reminder that we should be ever vigilant in making sure that the safety measures are followed. We never know what can happen – it was by coincidence that the other bus was going down the street and hit the boy – but if the rules were followed, this precious life might still be in existence.
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[...] has not been a month that I wrote a post on that little boy who got killed when he crossed the street in front of a school bus. Though we might not hear about these kinds of incidents every day, it happens quite often. For [...]