School Bus Hit and Run
Lack of information and medical attention worries parents
By VINCE LATTANZIO
Updated 5:50 AM EST, Wed, Nov 18, 2009
Parents of more than a dozen young children involved in a school bus accident are outraged they were never informed of the incident and that their kids were never offered medical attention. Now, they want to know why.
At a packed school board meeting in Chichester Township, Pa. Tuesday night, a parade of angry and concerned parents voiced their dismay about the accident, which put their children's lives in danger.
The hit and run accident happened on Nov. 6 when the school bus filled with Kindergarten through fourth graders rammed a Ford Explorer moving at 35 m.p.h., officials said. The SUV fled the scene, but the bus stopped to file a police report.
"No one at one point walked down the aisle to look at our kids and say 'Are you okay,'" said one parent.
To make matters worse, parents say they learned of the accident only after the kids complained of aches and pains.
"I hit the front of the seat," first grader Landen Duewhite said as she described the accident. "Everybody hit the seat that was in front of them."
Landen's mom April said the girl was diagnosed with a concussion after she took the 6-year old to the hospital to be checked.
"She just laid around, she didn’t want to eat and she went to sleep," said April Duewhite of the night of the accident. She learned of the crash the next morning after Landen woke up with a headache.
The parents became even more outraged with the situation after a meeting with the Chichester School Board's superintendent Monday. At that meeting, he reviewed the bus' dashboard camera video with the parents.
The video was not released to the media, but parent Darec Alliston recalled the video: "You saw the camera shaking, you saw the kids being jarred around the bus."
While the parents understand it was an accident, they feel a little communication could have avoided the controversy.
"All you had to do is call," April Duewhite said.
First Published: Nov 18, 2009 1:12 AM EST
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