by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
A 14-year-old student was struck by a motorist while attempting to board a school bus in Spotsylvania in the early morning of Nov. 15.
The driver, a 20-year-old, failed to yield to the bus’s displayed stop signs and flashing lights, according to a press release from the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office.
The bus was stopped in the road to pick up children shortly before 7 a.m. yesterday. It was displaying both the driver’s side and front stop arm and two cars were stopped behind it when another car approached from behind, crossed the double yellow line driving on the wrong side of the road, and struck the 14-year-old student as well as the front of the bus.
The student was transferred to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. At the accident, the bus driver and 10 other children were on board and were unharmed, according to the press release.
The driver of the car was charged with reckless driving.
In the press release, Spotsylvania Sheriff Roger Harris reminds motorists to “pay attention and use extreme caution when school buses stop to load and unload students.”
Virginia law requires motorists approaching from any direction to stop for a clearly marked school bus that is stopped to load or unload children and remain stopped until the bus is moving again.
