A young girl was killed in an accident along a Milwaukee County street after running out into the road, unbeknownst to her grandmother. The 3-year-old was hit by a school bus in the 1600 block of South 28th Street, in front of her grandmother’s home.
The fatal accident was reported on a Friday afternoon just before 3 p.m. The grandmother told investigating authorities that she had taken her granddaughter shopping for groceries that afternoon.
The child had fallen asleep on the way home from the store. The grandmother said she carried the sleeping child into her home and laid the toddler on a couch near the front door. She then left the house to unpack the groceries from her car’s trunk.
Because there was no parking available on the close side of the street, the grandmother had to park her car on the far side of the street. She was busy unloading the car and did not realize that the child had woken up and run outside into the street.
A school bus, transporting a half a dozen Alcott Elementary School special-needs students, was driving along South 28th Street. The grandmother said she saw what happened too late. The 3-year-old suffered severe injuries and died a short time later at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
Milwaukee Public School officials sent a separate bus to pick up the six children aboard the vehicle involved in the accident. It has not been reported that any of the school children on the bus witnessed what happened.
The child is survived by a 4-year-old sister and her parents from Greenfield.
Source: The Journal Sentinel, “3-year-old girl dies after being struck by school bus,” Jesse Garza, Sept. 9, 2011
