Stepfather of boy hit by school bus raises questions about incident

DAYTON — A boy was taken to the hospital after he was struck by a Dayton Public Schools bus that he was supposed to take to school Wednesday morning.

Crews were dispatched to South Jersey Street and Bierce Avenue after the student was hit around 7 a.m., according to investigators.

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However, the boy’s stepfather, Patrick Garrick, is disputing the district’s claim.

“She turned off the lights as he got right in front of the bus and took off and hit him,” he said. “So it’s not that he ran in front of the bus while it was moving.”

Garrick added that the boy was hit in front of their house on Burkhardt Avenue and not at South Jersey Street and Bierce Avenue.

“What my question is, is why isn’t she being investigated for hit and run?” he said. “Because she did hit him and then left the scene of where the actual accident happened.”

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The district in reviewing the incident, but “at this time, no wrongdoing on the part of the driver is evident.”

The boy was taken to Dayton Children’s Hospital, but so far is doing well.

“They’re checking him out, making sure there’s no internal injuries,” Garrick said. “He does have a bleeding disorder that if he’s hit a certain way it could be real serious.”

Other students on the bus were moved to another bus to be taken to school.

A Huber Heights woman was heading to work Wednesday morning when she pulled up to the scene.

“The bus was pulled over right in front of my place of employment and I wasn’t quite sure what was going on,” said Brittany Dickerson. “A few minutes later, the police and everybody was out here.”

She said that it isn’t uncommon for the area to still be dark around the time of the incident.

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“Kids are out here on the corner and you can barely see,” Dickerson added.

Authorities are reviewing the school bus surveillance footage as part of the investigation.

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