Personal Injury Law

8-Year-Old Girl Dies In Florida School Bus Accident

By Eddie Farah

It is truly a parent's worst nightmare.

School has been in session in Florida for nearly a week and in Tallahassee a school bus, a minivan, and a cement mixer truck collided this week killing an eight-year-old girl onboard the bus.

Seven other children were injured Friday afternoon on a bus, owned by a Boys and Girls Club. It was transporting 27 Tallahassee, Florida area students from Apalachee Elementary School to the club.

A cement truck rear-ended the bus while it stopped at a red light, waiting in the left-turn lane. The impact tipped the truck to its side and caused the bus to run into a minivan in front if it. 8-year-old Roshay Dugans died at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. The other injured students were treated and released. Parent Angela Williams rushed to the scene. "My son and my niece are very, very, very traumatized," Williams said to the Sun-Sentinel. "My son is covered in -he has blood -someone else's blood. He said the little girl next to him was hurt really, really bad."

There is no word tonight on whether the cement truck driver will be cited or why he hit the school bus, but parents and likely their attorneys will be asking what happened and why. Given a General Accounting Office report this summer on the high number of bus drivers who also qualify for disability coverage, the family needs to be asking whether either driver of the school bus or cement truck should have even been issued a commercial license to drive a bus.

All of that is still too early to tell now. Our condolences to the families of the little children involved.

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on September 05, 2008 (boomark / email).