6-Year-Old Wisconsin Girl Killed, Sibling Injured Waiting to Board School Bus

A tragedy occurred Monday morning in Waushara County, Wisconsin that killed a 6-year-old-girl and injured her sibling just before they were boarding a school bus.

According to the report through KAAL-TV:

District administrator Anthony Marinack says the bus was stopped with its lights flashing and another vehicle going in the same direction struck the two children, killing the 6-year-old girl.

He says there were other students on the bus at the time. The State Patrol is assisting with the crash reconstruction.

The children were hit along Highway 73, southeast of Plainfield, Wisconsin and there were other students on the bus at the time.

As a parent, my heart just breaks reading this and I get filled with anger.  As it states above, the bus had its lights flashing and the car still kept going.  While we don't yet know if the driver was having a medical emergency that could lead to such inattentive driving, it once again provides another chance to remind all drivers to pay extra attention around school buses.

There have been numerous incidents reported in Cloquet where drivers are failing to stop when school buses are stopped with lights flashing and their stop-arms out.  The Minnesota State Patrol has also had to come out and say this is a big problem as of late.

Enough is enough.  We need to significantly toughen the laws surrounding stop-arm violations, including loss of drivers license for first time violators.  It only takes one irresponsible moment behind the wheel to kill a child, we can't go easy on anyone any longer.

The current system is broken.  How many kids have to die before our leaders decide to do something?