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Tampa Bay area school bus incidents since 1999

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2009

Hillsborough County:

In August 2008, a revamped bus routing system wreaks havoc with students and parents who wait for buses that never come or come at times earlier or later than expected. The county sets up hotlines for complaints and they become clogged with more than 1,600 complaints.

In August 2008, a 10-year-old Valrico boy is struck by a car as he waits for a school bus near his home on Valrico Road. The fourth-grader at Valrico Elementary School student is flown to Tampa General Hospital and has since recovered.

In February 2008, two children on their way to school are struck by vehicles in unrelated Hillsborough County incidents. Neither is seriously injured. A 7-year-old student at Cork Elementary School is struck as he runs across Sam Allen Road to catch his bus. The second student, an 11-year old attending Turkey Creek Middle School, is bumped by a pickup truck as she walks to her bus stop on Kilgore Road.

In April 2000, an 8-year-old Brandon boy gets off a bus at the wrong stop, crosses four lanes of traffic on Providence Boulevard and walks a mile home. The Mintz Elementary School student's mother had sent a letter to the school telling them that her son was to be let off near a friend's home in a nearby subdivision. She is notified that afternoon by the friend's father that her third-grader did not get off the bus at the stop. The child is unharmed and found his way home.

In October 1999, a 10-year-old Odessa boy is killed after his bus driver drops the child off at the wrong bus stop, five miles from his home on Lutz-Lake Fern Road. The sixth-grader's parents report him missing 20 minutes before he was struck. The bus driver initially tells deputies that she did not recall him on her bus that day. The parents say they called Walker Middle School twice that day to make sure their son would be dropped off at his usual stop following an after-school tutoring program.

Pinellas County:
In March 2005, a 17-year-old Dunedin girl is seriously injured when she was struck by a car while walking to her school bus stop. The junior at Countryside High School in Clearwater is hit before dawn on Curlew Road as she crosses the street to get to her stop.

In February 2005, an 8-year-old girl is let off a school bus at the wrong corner and is killed as she attempts to cross five lanes of traffic on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street in St. Petersburg to get home. The bus driver is a substitute. The victim is a fourth-grader at James Sanderlin Elementary School.

In October 2004, a Clearwater High School teenager is killed after she tries to cross McMullen-Booth Road to get home after a bus driver drops her off on the wrong side of the road. The incident sparks an investigation that reveals hundreds of students are assigned to bus stops that require them to cross multilane roads.

Pasco County:
In August 2007, a Port Richey 5-year-old kindergartener who persuades her mother to let her ride the bus is not on the bus when her mom shows up to pick her up after school at the family's Regency Park home. The Chasco Elementary School student instead gets off at the wrong stop and walks with a classmate to her home. She is unharmed.

Polk County:
In August 2007, a 12-year-old Lakeland girl sitting at a bus stop before dawn is run over by a neighbor, breaking both her legs. The girl's family doesn't blame the driver, but rather the county for not having lights or benches at the bus stop on Niamathia Drive. The second-grader, who is attending her second day of class, was sitting on the curb, her legs stretching into the street.

In April 2005, a 17-year-old Lakeland High School student stands alone at her bus stop on Texas Avenue when she is approached by a man with a gun and a ski mask. He orders her into the nearby woods, where he rapes her. School officials say that usually, there are more than a dozen students at the bus stop. The teen was there about 20 minutes before the bus was to arrive.

Manatee County:
In February 2007, a 13-year-old boy is abducted from a bus stop in Parrish. He is bound and gagged and taken to rural eastern Manatee County, where he is tied to a tree. The teen manages to escape unharmed. Two weeks later, a 22-year-old Mexican man is arrested at a border town in Texas and is charged with the armed kidnapping of the teen.

Hernando County:
In September, a 13-year-old Brooksville girl is walking to her bus stop and is struck and killed. The West Hernando Middle School student is alone at the time and is en route to a bus stop on Narrows Street that was not her assigned pick-up point, authorities say. There are no sidewalks and the girl walks on the street pavement. She is less than 30 feet from the bus stop when she's hit.

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