A Montgomery County school bus struck and killed an 11-year-old bicyclist in the Aspen Hill neighborhood of Maryland.
The crash happened just after 3:10 p.m. Thursday at Russett Road and Bauer Drive near Earle B. Wood Middle School.
Police said in a release that when they arrived on the scene, 11-year-old Summer Lim was found near the rear of the bus. At the time of the crash, the bus was traveling eastbound on Bauer Drive and was turning right onto southbound Russett Road, according to police. Lim was also traveling eastbound on Bauer Drive when she was hit, police said.
Shiera Goff, the public information officer for Montgomery County police, said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon that the 11-year-old girl lived in the area.
“I don’t know whether or not she was on the bicycle or whether she was walking the bicycle, but there was a bicycle involved,” Goff said.
The bus was taking kids home from Earle B. Wood Middle School, where Lim was a student.
“We are so deeply saddened by this news, exponentially saddened. On behalf of the school system, I want to express our deepest condolences to the students, family, friends, teachers and classmates. No words can truly capture the pain that our school community is feeling at this time. This is every parent’s worst nightmare and every educators greatest fear,” Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Taylor said.
The bus driver, whose identity was not made public, was taken in to speak to the department’s crisis team. No charges will be filed until an investigation has been completed, Goff said.
Goff said the bus was full of children who witnessed the crash, but no additional injuries were reported.
Counseling and other services will be made available to the students. A second bus transferred the students to a reunification location with their guardians.
“Our focus right now is on supporting the family, our school community that is hurting, and our staff,” Taylor said.
Taylor said the school system will be evaluating “walk zones” in the region to determine where students can safely walk and “arrive to school safely and get home safely every day.”
Below is the area where the crash happened:
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