IN LOVING MEMORY: 2001 School Bus Related Deaths

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Submit loss of child in a school or activity bus related event to: "IN LOVING MEMORY." Please indicate child's Name, Age or Grade, School, City, State, Transportation Provider and Date at time of loss. Also, please include a Newspaper or Television Station that carried the story, and the address (http://) of your WEB page. If you don't have a WEB page and would like to make one Geocities will help with providing free WEB page space. Geocities also has a free on line PageBuilder -- if you're not experienced at making a WEB page their page builder will convert your normal typing into HTML code. If you are not on the Internet we will help find someone to host a free page at their WEB site. Click Here for an actual example, by a Virginia parent, of what might be presented on a loving memory page. Year 2001

Arkansas VELVET RIDGE: Jimmy Smith (53) a passenger in a pickup truck died when the driver of the pickup crashed in to the back of Bald Knob school bus that was stopped to let off a student on Arkansas 167. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 04/30/2001

California CALIFORNIA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, FREMONT: Nikolas Bryant (13) and his counselor, Carla Pereira (49) of Pleasant died after the 32 passenger bus owned by West Valley Charter Lines Inc, veered out of control and tumbled over a guardrail to an on-ramp below. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 01/02/2001

California HIGH SCHOOL UNKNOWN, TWENTYNINE PALMS: Brian Burdett (15) had just gotten off his school bus with three other students when he stopped to tie his shoe as the bus pulled away from a regular stop running over and killing him. It is unknown if he was in front of the bus or behind the bus. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 02/08/2001

California GORMAN: A school bus driver (name withheld) was killed when she apparently lost control of the bus, which skidded across several lanes on the Golden State Freeway, crashing into a pickup truck parked near the center divider and then into the divider. She was ejected from the bus and hit by a big-rig. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 04/09/2001

California CENTRAL UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, FRESNO: Lynette Zavala (34) died a Fresno hospital after she was severely burned in a firey crash with a pickup truck. She was transporting five children, ages 6 through 10, when her bus broadsided a pickup truck that allegedly ran a stop sign. Both the front of the bus and the truck were engulfed in flames. Despite severe burns, several broken bones and trapped in the driver's seat, Zavala was able to instruct five students safely out of the bus. In 2007 the District's new Lynette Zavala Transportation Facility was dedicated in her honor. 05/04/2001

California SAN JOSE: Randy Rigdon Jr. (48), a driver and trainer, was killed by a woman school bus driver who methodically gunned down coworkers at the Laidlaw Education Services bus yard. Cathline C. Repunte (36) who had drove school bus five years, also shot three fellow employees Patty Lucia (47), Carrie Walter (51), and Gloria Guihuiz (58), identified as dispatchers and drivers, wounded in the shooting before a fellow driver, Gregory Alan Lee, grabbed and held onto her ending the early morning shooting rampage. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 04/23/2001

Florida LAKE SHORE MIDDLE SCHOOL, JACKSONVILLE: Sheila Deguzman (14) was crossing in front of her school bus in front of her Westside home when she was hit by a car that drove past the bus's flashing red lights. The car's driver told police he didn't see the girl or the bus because of the setting sun. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 02/06/2001

Florida FLORIDA STATE: An employee of Peninsula Charter Lines, the driver of a bus carrying the Florida State baseball team died of an apparent heart attack as the bus hurtled along Highway 101 at 70 mph. Team coaches were able to control the bus and steer it safely to the shoulder. No one else was injured. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 02/08/2001

Florida FRANGUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, ORANGE COUNTY: Jared Hayes (8) died when the driver of a minivan, that had just dropped off her children at the bus stop suddenly backed over and killed Hayes. The driver thought her van was in drive, but it was actually in reverse. She hit the accelerator and backed her vehicle over the sidewalk, striking Hayes, brushing another student and ramming the van into a brick wall. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 03/06/2001

Georgia WESTMONT ELEMENTARY, COLUMBIA COUNTY: Aleana Johnson (5) Kindergartner may have tripped or was tying her shoelace in front of her bus when she was run over, crushed and killed by the bus left rear tires. The bus had just dropped her off near her home. Mrs. Johnson blames faulty school bus schedules for her daughter's death. Buses arriving up to 50 mins. late made it impractical for parents to meet their children. 01/09/2001

Georgia CARROLL COUNTY MOUNT ZION HS: Susan Shoemake, 16, died in a crash with a school bus. Georgia State Patrol was looking for the driver of a red pickup that fled the scene after possibly causing Susan to slam into the bus. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 04/03/2001

Kansas DOUGLAS COUNTY: Robert D. Cronin (58) Eudora, died in a collision when the SUV he was driving didn't stop before entering a HWY 56 intersection in to the path of a school bus carrying the DeSoto High School forensics team. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 03/04/2001

Kansas LAWRENCE: Katherine "Katie" Mika (19) died in Leavenworth County as she was driving eastbound on US-24/40 Hwy on the outskirts of Basehor when the driver of a 65-passenger westbound school bus attempted to make a left turn, struck Mika's 1988 Ford Taurus in the driver's door. Mika had been an elite singer at Free State. A member of the Chamber Singers - the top section of the school's choir - She performed in the state choir competition last year and toured with the Free State choir at a national competition in Orlando, Fla. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 05/08/2001

Maryland PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY: Shirley M. Cowan (39) of Bladensburg died when the car she was driving collided head-on with a school bus carrying seven students to Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 01/??/2001

Maryland CAMBRIDGE-SOUTH DORCHESTER HIGH, CAMBRIDGE: Ro'Shina Beasley (16) was stabbed to death at her school bus stop by a man in his 20 while she and other students were waiting for the school bus. Preliminary indications are that Beasley and the man were involved in an ongoing dispute. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 09/??/2001

Massachusetts NEWTON MIDDLE SCHOOL, OAK HILL: Greg Chan (13), Kayla Rosenberg (13), Melissa Leung (14), Stephen Glidden (12) died and 37 other passengers were injured on a school field trip, to a Halifax (Canada) music festival, when the Kristine Travel & Tours of Chinatown 45-foot bus tour bus missed a hairpin turn, careened off a Canadian highway ramp in early-morning darkness near Sussex, New Brunswick (Canada). The bus driver of the tour bus reportedly spoke very little English (spoke Chinese), needed help in translating signs, had little prep time for the trip, was unfamiliar with the route and may have been speeding. NOTE: Crash experts presented in court cases that had students been sitting appropriately in their seats, in the back area of the bus from where all four deaths occurred, the deaths may not have happened. 04/27/2001

Nebraska Seward High School, SEWARD: A 78-passenger bus, carrying 31 people from a band competition at Omaha Burke High School, swerved to avoid what NTSB officials described as either an optical illusion or actual encroachment into its lane by a Norfolk High School bus in a construction zone. The Seward bus swerved, went off the road and broke through a guardrail that had been damaged months earlier but not repaired completely. The bus came to rest on its side in the creek below a bridge. Killed were students Ben Prescott (14); Ian Koehler (14); Eric Bader (17); and parent Tracey Kohlmeier (40). The National Transportation Safety Board found the state Department of Roads and Vrana & Sons partly responsible for conditions that contributed to the crash and used the Seward bus crash to say that highway construction zones too often are death zones for motorists and workers. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 10/13/2001

New Jersey YESHIVA KITANA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, LAKEWOOD: Zev Yehuda Fischer (7) a first-grader on his way to his aunt's house after school was killed when he was crushed beneath the front driver's-side wheel when the bus started moving after he departed the bus and was crossing with eight of his classmates. The bus was equipped with a mechanical arm -- a safety device designed to swing out from the bus like a gate and prevent a child from walking in a blind spot too close to the vehicle. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 04/02/2001

New York QUEENS: Betty Davis (62), mother of six who lived in Elmont and was a crossing guard for Sacred Heart school in St. Albans, was on her way to catch a bus to work when she was hit by a mini school bus. She died 3 days later (01/22/01) from head injuries. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 01/19/2001

New York BROOKLYN: Mordechai Gancz (2), was waiting outside the school bus in the Borough Park neighborhood while his mother boarded to give the driver a gift. When she got off the bus with her 4-year-old daughter, the bus driver then drove off, unknowingly running over the 2-year-old. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 03/07/2001

New York QUEENS: Tessie Nowogrska (88) was struck and killed when an STC Bus Transportation school bus carrying 10 children, turned left onto 47th Avenue from 42nd Street in Sunnyside. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 03/09/2001

New York COMMACK: Mary Kathy Ruge (40) a school bus driver was killed instantly in a headon collision when a van driven by Tomas Galarza (22) (also killed) crossed into Ruge's lane and crashed into her bus. A 4-inch diameter PVC tube, used to carry smaller copper piping, was jarred loose from a roof-mounted rack, crashed through the front windshield of the bus and struck Ruge in the head. 38 John Mandracchia-Sawmill Intermediate School students were evacuated through the bus rear emergency door. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 05/14/2001

Ohio EUCLID: An adult pedestrian was crossing the street via a crosswalk at a four-way stop when a school bus made a left turn striking and killing her. The school bus driver has been charged with vehicular homicide and failure to yield to a pedestrian. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 01/31/2001

Ohio BLOOM MIDDLE SCHOOL, CINCINNATI: Talmer Booker (14) was killed after stepping off the curb at Colerain Avenue and Hawaiian Terrace into the path of a car at 7:15 a.m.. He died on impact. A witness said the teen was trying to catch a Metro bus to Bloom Middle School in the West End. Metro provides students and also members of the general public transportation on their buses. Metro buses are not equipped with student safety crossing lights. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 10/01/2001

Road Island PROVIDENCE: Cassandra Berrios (7 MO.), the daughter of a bus monitor on the bus, was killed when the First Student school bus she was on veered into the breakdown lane and collided with a parked tractor-trailer. The car seat the child was in was improperly installed, but officials don't know if the placement of the seat was a factor in her death. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND
South Carolina CROSS: Johnnie Lee Shultz (9) died instantly when she ran into the road and was hit by the truck about 6:15 a.m.. She and other pupils had been waiting in the dark at their school bus stop. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 10/01/2001

Texas SAN ANTONIO: Rosa Perez (68) was trying to catch up with a VIA bus as it was pulling away from the curb. She began banging on the door to get the driver to stop. She apparently lost her footing and went underneath the bus, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 04/27/2001

Texas HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST., HOUSTON: Jennifer Rodriguez (9) was trapped in a sport utility vehicle she was riding in that was engulfed in flames, which spread to a Metro bus that witnesses said rear-ended it. Onlookers said they heard the girl's screams but could not save her. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 05/07/2001

Texas HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST., HOUSTON: Henry Jeovany Castillo (8), a third-grade student at Benavidez Elementary school, was crushed to death when he crawled beneath a private school bus to retrieve a marble. The bus driver, not knowing the child was underneath the bus, drove forward approximately five feet. It was enough to drive over the child and he died instantly, Police said. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 11/2001

Texas CLIFTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, CLIFTON: Christopher Lee Slagle (21) and the horse he was riding died when they were struck by a Clifton Independent School District bus, propelling them into a 2001 Ford Ranger. The driver of the 1998 Freightliner school bus said she did not see a horse and its rider because of early morning "low light" conditions. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 09/27/2001

Utah Heather Jo Rodriguez (35) abruptly turned in front of a school bus while driving drunk, causing the death of her passenger and friend, Terry Lee Stewart. The bus, which was carrying no students, slammed into the passenger side of Rodriguez's vehicle. The bus driver, who had consumed no alcohol or drugs, was not ticketed. The driver testified at a preliminary hearing that she could not see any mechanical or hand turn signal from Rodriguez's vehicle and that "it appeared they tried to barrel through traffic and make for a driveway." NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 2001

Wisconsin MILWAUKIE: Danon Quezaire (23) an off-duty Milwaukee police officer was killed Monday afternoon when his personal motorcycle collided with a school bus being driven by a student driver. The initial investigation suggested the motorcyclist had the right of way. A Milwaukee County medical examiner's report said the cyclist may have been exceeding the speed limit by 30 mph when the collision occurred. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 04/30/2001

Wisconsin TREMPEALEAU ELEMENTARY, WHITEHALL: Phillip Schied (9) was struck and killed by a motorist (84) while crossing the street in front of his stopped school bus. The bus reportedly had its flashing lights on and its stop arm out. The driver reportedly told investigators he tried to stop but did not see the bus in time. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND 05/01/2001

Archives PLEASE NOTE that the 2safeschools archives do not cover all the school bus related deaths in those years. Hundreds of children have died over the past decade, students who were in the process of going to and from their bus stop, getting on or off their bus or while riding their school bus - over 400 children the past twenty years have been run over by their own school bus. Information and memory links are collected and added to the archives as found by 2safeschools members or provided by helpful visitors. In Loving Memory Submission Page n/a

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NOTE: Feel free to copy and give this report to your school bus driver, school bus transportation Dept. and/or school. Add a link to IN LOVING MEMORY from your Web page or in your email signature file:
IN LOVING MEMORY
http://www.geocities.com/2safeschools/ilm/ilmem_b.htm REVISED
07/14/2004

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Submit Page Email Submit	Submit loss of child in a school or activity bus related event to: "IN LOVING MEMORY." Please indicate child's Name, Age or Grade, School, City, State, Transportation Provider and Date at time of loss. Also, please include a Newspaper or Television Station that carried the story, and the address (http://) of your WEB page. If you don't have a WEB page and would like to make one Geocities will help with providing free WEB page space. Geocities also has a free on line PageBuilder -- if you're not experienced at making a WEB page their page builder will convert your normal typing into HTML code. If you are not on the Internet we will help find someone to host a free page at their WEB site. Click Here for an actual example, by a Virginia parent, of what might be presented on a loving memory page.	Year 2001
Arkansas	VELVET RIDGE: Jimmy Smith (53) a passenger in a pickup truck died when the driver of the pickup crashed in to the back of Bald Knob school bus that was stopped to let off a student on Arkansas 167. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	04/30/2001
California	CALIFORNIA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, FREMONT: Nikolas Bryant (13) and his counselor, Carla Pereira (49) of Pleasant died after the 32 passenger bus owned by West Valley Charter Lines Inc, veered out of control and tumbled over a guardrail to an on-ramp below. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	01/02/2001
California	HIGH SCHOOL UNKNOWN, TWENTYNINE PALMS: Brian Burdett (15) had just gotten off his school bus with three other students when he stopped to tie his shoe as the bus pulled away from a regular stop running over and killing him. It is unknown if he was in front of the bus or behind the bus. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	02/08/2001
California	GORMAN: A school bus driver (name withheld) was killed when she apparently lost control of the bus, which skidded across several lanes on the Golden State Freeway, crashing into a pickup truck parked near the center divider and then into the divider. She was ejected from the bus and hit by a big-rig. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	04/09/2001
California	CENTRAL UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, FRESNO: Lynette Zavala (34) died a Fresno hospital after she was severely burned in a firey crash with a pickup truck. She was transporting five children, ages 6 through 10, when her bus broadsided a pickup truck that allegedly ran a stop sign. Both the front of the bus and the truck were engulfed in flames. Despite severe burns, several broken bones and trapped in the driver's seat, Zavala was able to instruct five students safely out of the bus. In 2007 the District's new Lynette Zavala Transportation Facility was dedicated in her honor.	05/04/2001
California	SAN JOSE: Randy Rigdon Jr. (48), a driver and trainer, was killed by a woman school bus driver who methodically gunned down coworkers at the Laidlaw Education Services bus yard. Cathline C. Repunte (36) who had drove school bus five years, also shot three fellow employees Patty Lucia (47), Carrie Walter (51), and Gloria Guihuiz (58), identified as dispatchers and drivers, wounded in the shooting before a fellow driver, Gregory Alan Lee, grabbed and held onto her ending the early morning shooting rampage. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	04/23/2001
Florida	LAKE SHORE MIDDLE SCHOOL, JACKSONVILLE: Sheila Deguzman (14) was crossing in front of her school bus in front of her Westside home when she was hit by a car that drove past the bus's flashing red lights. The car's driver told police he didn't see the girl or the bus because of the setting sun. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	02/06/2001
Florida	FLORIDA STATE: An employee of Peninsula Charter Lines, the driver of a bus carrying the Florida State baseball team died of an apparent heart attack as the bus hurtled along Highway 101 at 70 mph. Team coaches were able to control the bus and steer it safely to the shoulder. No one else was injured. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	02/08/2001
Florida	FRANGUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, ORANGE COUNTY: Jared Hayes (8) died when the driver of a minivan, that had just dropped off her children at the bus stop suddenly backed over and killed Hayes. The driver thought her van was in drive, but it was actually in reverse. She hit the accelerator and backed her vehicle over the sidewalk, striking Hayes, brushing another student and ramming the van into a brick wall. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	03/06/2001
Georgia	WESTMONT ELEMENTARY, COLUMBIA COUNTY: Aleana Johnson (5) Kindergartner may have tripped or was tying her shoelace in front of her bus when she was run over, crushed and killed by the bus left rear tires. The bus had just dropped her off near her home. Mrs. Johnson blames faulty school bus schedules for her daughter's death. Buses arriving up to 50 mins. late made it impractical for parents to meet their children.	01/09/2001
Georgia	CARROLL COUNTY MOUNT ZION HS: Susan Shoemake, 16, died in a crash with a school bus. Georgia State Patrol was looking for the driver of a red pickup that fled the scene after possibly causing Susan to slam into the bus. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	04/03/2001
Kansas	DOUGLAS COUNTY: Robert D. Cronin (58) Eudora, died in a collision when the SUV he was driving didn't stop before entering a HWY 56 intersection in to the path of a school bus carrying the DeSoto High School forensics team. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	03/04/2001
Kansas	LAWRENCE: Katherine "Katie" Mika (19) died in Leavenworth County as she was driving eastbound on US-24/40 Hwy on the outskirts of Basehor when the driver of a 65-passenger westbound school bus attempted to make a left turn, struck Mika's 1988 Ford Taurus in the driver's door. Mika had been an elite singer at Free State. A member of the Chamber Singers - the top section of the school's choir - She performed in the state choir competition last year and toured with the Free State choir at a national competition in Orlando, Fla. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	05/08/2001
Maryland	PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY: Shirley M. Cowan (39) of Bladensburg died when the car she was driving collided head-on with a school bus carrying seven students to Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	01/??/2001
Maryland	CAMBRIDGE-SOUTH DORCHESTER HIGH, CAMBRIDGE: Ro'Shina Beasley (16) was stabbed to death at her school bus stop by a man in his 20 while she and other students were waiting for the school bus. Preliminary indications are that Beasley and the man were involved in an ongoing dispute. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	09/??/2001
Massachusetts	NEWTON MIDDLE SCHOOL, OAK HILL: Greg Chan (13), Kayla Rosenberg (13), Melissa Leung (14), Stephen Glidden (12) died and 37 other passengers were injured on a school field trip, to a Halifax (Canada) music festival, when the Kristine Travel & Tours of Chinatown 45-foot bus tour bus missed a hairpin turn, careened off a Canadian highway ramp in early-morning darkness near Sussex, New Brunswick (Canada). The bus driver of the tour bus reportedly spoke very little English (spoke Chinese), needed help in translating signs, had little prep time for the trip, was unfamiliar with the route and may have been speeding. NOTE: Crash experts presented in court cases that had students been sitting appropriately in their seats, in the back area of the bus from where all four deaths occurred, the deaths may not have happened.	04/27/2001
Nebraska	Seward High School, SEWARD: A 78-passenger bus, carrying 31 people from a band competition at Omaha Burke High School, swerved to avoid what NTSB officials described as either an optical illusion or actual encroachment into its lane by a Norfolk High School bus in a construction zone. The Seward bus swerved, went off the road and broke through a guardrail that had been damaged months earlier but not repaired completely. The bus came to rest on its side in the creek below a bridge. Killed were students Ben Prescott (14); Ian Koehler (14); Eric Bader (17); and parent Tracey Kohlmeier (40). The National Transportation Safety Board found the state Department of Roads and Vrana & Sons partly responsible for conditions that contributed to the crash and used the Seward bus crash to say that highway construction zones too often are death zones for motorists and workers. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	10/13/2001
New Jersey	YESHIVA KITANA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, LAKEWOOD: Zev Yehuda Fischer (7) a first-grader on his way to his aunt's house after school was killed when he was crushed beneath the front driver's-side wheel when the bus started moving after he departed the bus and was crossing with eight of his classmates. The bus was equipped with a mechanical arm -- a safety device designed to swing out from the bus like a gate and prevent a child from walking in a blind spot too close to the vehicle. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	04/02/2001
New York	QUEENS: Betty Davis (62), mother of six who lived in Elmont and was a crossing guard for Sacred Heart school in St. Albans, was on her way to catch a bus to work when she was hit by a mini school bus. She died 3 days later (01/22/01) from head injuries. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	01/19/2001
New York	BROOKLYN: Mordechai Gancz (2), was waiting outside the school bus in the Borough Park neighborhood while his mother boarded to give the driver a gift. When she got off the bus with her 4-year-old daughter, the bus driver then drove off, unknowingly running over the 2-year-old. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	03/07/2001
New York	QUEENS: Tessie Nowogrska (88) was struck and killed when an STC Bus Transportation school bus carrying 10 children, turned left onto 47th Avenue from 42nd Street in Sunnyside. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	03/09/2001
New York	COMMACK: Mary Kathy Ruge (40) a school bus driver was killed instantly in a headon collision when a van driven by Tomas Galarza (22) (also killed) crossed into Ruge's lane and crashed into her bus. A 4-inch diameter PVC tube, used to carry smaller copper piping, was jarred loose from a roof-mounted rack, crashed through the front windshield of the bus and struck Ruge in the head. 38 John Mandracchia-Sawmill Intermediate School students were evacuated through the bus rear emergency door. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	05/14/2001
Ohio	EUCLID: An adult pedestrian was crossing the street via a crosswalk at a four-way stop when a school bus made a left turn striking and killing her. The school bus driver has been charged with vehicular homicide and failure to yield to a pedestrian. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	01/31/2001
Ohio	BLOOM MIDDLE SCHOOL, CINCINNATI: Talmer Booker (14) was killed after stepping off the curb at Colerain Avenue and Hawaiian Terrace into the path of a car at 7:15 a.m.. He died on impact. A witness said the teen was trying to catch a Metro bus to Bloom Middle School in the West End. Metro provides students and also members of the general public transportation on their buses. Metro buses are not equipped with student safety crossing lights. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	10/01/2001
Road Island	PROVIDENCE: Cassandra Berrios (7 MO.), the daughter of a bus monitor on the bus, was killed when the First Student school bus she was on veered into the breakdown lane and collided with a parked tractor-trailer. The car seat the child was in was improperly installed, but officials don't know if the placement of the seat was a factor in her death. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND
South Carolina	CROSS: Johnnie Lee Shultz (9) died instantly when she ran into the road and was hit by the truck about 6:15 a.m.. She and other pupils had been waiting in the dark at their school bus stop. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	10/01/2001
Texas	SAN ANTONIO: Rosa Perez (68) was trying to catch up with a VIA bus as it was pulling away from the curb. She began banging on the door to get the driver to stop. She apparently lost her footing and went underneath the bus, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	04/27/2001
Texas	HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST., HOUSTON: Jennifer Rodriguez (9) was trapped in a sport utility vehicle she was riding in that was engulfed in flames, which spread to a Metro bus that witnesses said rear-ended it. Onlookers said they heard the girl's screams but could not save her. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	05/07/2001
Texas	HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST., HOUSTON: Henry Jeovany Castillo (8), a third-grade student at Benavidez Elementary school, was crushed to death when he crawled beneath a private school bus to retrieve a marble. The bus driver, not knowing the child was underneath the bus, drove forward approximately five feet. It was enough to drive over the child and he died instantly, Police said. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	11/2001
Texas	CLIFTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, CLIFTON: Christopher Lee Slagle (21) and the horse he was riding died when they were struck by a Clifton Independent School District bus, propelling them into a 2001 Ford Ranger. The driver of the 1998 Freightliner school bus said she did not see a horse and its rider because of early morning "low light" conditions. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	09/27/2001
Utah	Heather Jo Rodriguez (35) abruptly turned in front of a school bus while driving drunk, causing the death of her passenger and friend, Terry Lee Stewart. The bus, which was carrying no students, slammed into the passenger side of Rodriguez's vehicle. The bus driver, who had consumed no alcohol or drugs, was not ticketed. The driver testified at a preliminary hearing that she could not see any mechanical or hand turn signal from Rodriguez's vehicle and that "it appeared they tried to barrel through traffic and make for a driveway." NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	2001
Wisconsin	MILWAUKIE: Danon Quezaire (23) an off-duty Milwaukee police officer was killed Monday afternoon when his personal motorcycle collided with a school bus being driven by a student driver. The initial investigation suggested the motorcyclist had the right of way. A Milwaukee County medical examiner's report said the cyclist may have been exceeding the speed limit by 30 mph when the collision occurred. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	04/30/2001
Wisconsin	TREMPEALEAU ELEMENTARY, WHITEHALL: Phillip Schied (9) was struck and killed by a motorist (84) while crossing the street in front of his stopped school bus. The bus reportedly had its flashing lights on and its stop arm out. The driver reportedly told investigators he tried to stop but did not see the bus in time. NO MEMORY PAGES FOUND	05/01/2001
Archives	PLEASE NOTE that the 2safeschools archives do not cover all the school bus related deaths in those years. Hundreds of children have died over the past decade, students who were in the process of going to and from their bus stop, getting on or off their bus or while riding their school bus - over 400 children the past twenty years have been run over by their own school bus. Information and memory links are collected and added to the archives as found by 2safeschools members or provided by helpful visitors. In Loving Memory Submission Page	n/a
To Top	Return to top. NOTE: Feel free to copy and give this report to your school bus driver, school bus transportation Dept. and/or school. Add a link to IN LOVING MEMORY from your Web page or in your email signature file: IN LOVING MEMORY http://www.geocities.com/2safeschools/ilm/ilmem_b.htm	REVISED 07/14/2004