Jun 29, 2009 7:22 pm US/Eastern
Miami Girl Falls Off Moving School Bus
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Jackisha Bayard says she remembers trying to close the emergency exit on the bus, but doesn't remember what happened afterward.
CBS
Thirteen-year-old Jackisha Bayard is still hurting from the fall she suffered on June 24th in Miami while riding a Miami-Dade school bus to summer classes.
Jackisha was on a school bus with other children heading to Charles Drew Middle School in Miami when she fell out of the bus through an emergency back door -- the bus still moving. An attorney for her family says the bus driver was driving with the emergency door open, and had asked Jackisha to close it.
"He said 'could somebody close the door?', so I went and closed the door, but then he drove off and people said I fell out of the bus," Jackisha said.
She says she cannot remember anything after that.
Jackisha's mother, Milneuve, claims witnesses saw the door open for about four blocks while the bus was moving along Northwest 46th Street near 12th Avenue. That's where Jackisha fell from the bus and landed in the middle of the street. She was taken by paramedics to the Ryder Trauma Center.
Before the fall, Jackisha says kids on the bus were acting up. She says they were complaining the driver was driving too slowly. She says some kids were throwing raisins at the driver and a few even jumped out of the bus through the emergency exit.
Witness Siobhan Oxley says she saw the bus being driven with the door open. She did not see Jackisha fall out of the bus, but she did see her on the street after she fell. Oxley stopped to help the girl and accompanied her to the Hospital. Attorney Barry Snyder says Jackisha suffered brain trauma. He says she has trouble hearing, has difficulty with her vision and gets constant headaches.
Snyder is filing a lawsuit against the Miami-Dade School District. He blames the bus driver for what happened.
"There's a rule and the rule should be that that bus does not move when that door is open, simple as that," Snyder said during a press conference.
CBS4 has not been told if the driver is still on the job. Miami-Dade Schools officials say they are looking into the incident and have no comment.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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