MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — One student was killed after being hit by a school bus and another was injured after being struck by a passing vehicle while trying to board his school bus last week, officials said.
At approximately 3:48 p.m., officers from Montgomery County Department of Police responded to the intersection of Millwood Rd. and Tanglewood Dr. for a personal injury collision involving a Montgomery County Public Schools bus and a 9-year-old student, according to a news release from the police department.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the school bus driver, 53-year-old Serigne Makhtar Ndiaye, had turned right onto northbound Millwood Rd. from westbound Tanglewood Dr. after unloading several students, including the 9-year-old, at the intersection, according to police. For reasons still under investigation, the student, who has not yet been identified, was struck by the bus. Police said she was transported to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. Ndiaye and the other students on board the bus were not injured.
On Friday, officials told the Washington Post that the student attended Bradley Hills Elementary School and appeared to have walked back to the bus as it was departing and gotten tangled up near the bus's side door before she was hit.
Capt. Tom Didone, director of Montgomery County Department of Police’s traffic division, told the newspaper that there is no indication that the bus driver knew the student had come into the path of the vehicle, but that investigators are studying video from the bus’s external safety cameras. Police and residents also said that after the incident occurred Ndiaye stopped the bus, got out, and called 911.
Meanwhile on Friday, a 17-year-old student was injured after being struck by a vehicle along the intersection of Montrose Rd. while attempting to board his school bus, police said.
The incident occurred around 7:18 a.m. when the student, who has not yet been identified, was crossing the road to board the Montgomery County Public Schools bus when he was struck by a 2018 Jeep Renegade, driven by 61-year-old Reine Ngoumou Nee Nganzeu, according to a news release from the Montgomery County Department of Police.
The student was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, while Nganzeu was not injured and remained on the scene, police said. Capt. Tom Jordan of Montgomery County Police told NBC Washingtonthat the student was in the crosswalk when he was struck, but it hasn't yet been determined if the school bus's lights were either on or in the process of coming on when the vehicle passed.
As a result of the two incidents, Maryland lawmakers are planning to propose a new series of bills, one of which would require more funding for transportation safety projects near schools and senior centers, NBC Washington reports. The funding would include money collected in fines from drivers who illegally drive through crosswalks, according to the news source.
