Girl killed in school bus accident

~Investigation shows driver not at fault

SIKESTON -- An attempt to catch a school bus turned into tragedy for a Sikeston family Tuesday morning.

Kristen Harris, 6, was killed when she was struck just before 8 a.m. Tuesday by a school bus turning from Kiwanis Avenue onto Jackson Street.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that the young lady was told by some students that she was missing the bus and she ran after it as it pulled away," said Sikeston Department of Public Safety Director Drew Juden. "As the bus turned she caught up to the bus and at some point fell under the rear wheels."

The Missouri State Highway Patrol crash team, a trained group of officers who can diagram the accident to scale in order to determine what happened, was called in as well as the Highway Patrol's commercial motor vehicle safety unit.

While the Highway Patrol's report will not be back for 30 to 45 days, preliminary report shows the driver of the bus, 36-year-old Sheila Winkler of Sikeston, was not at fault. Officials noted Winkler had a clean driving record with the district, had renewed her commercial driver's license and gone through annual training over the summer.

"It doesn't appear at this time the driver could have done anything to have prevented this unfortunate incident," Juden said.

The reaction to what happened to the Lee Hunter Elementary School student Tuesday morning was one of shock and horror for her peers and the teachers. The Sikeston Public Schools System is doing what it can to help them through it by bringing counselors into the school.

"We got everybody situated, called ahead to the schools where the kids were attending and then had our counselors from all of our schools basically converge upon the school where the child attended which was Lee Hunter and in all the schools," said Superintendent of Sikeston Public Schools Steve Borgsmiller. "If there were some children who were on-site they visited with them, then they went to all the classrooms and visited with the students, and they visited with the children who were in class with this child."

Also school district officials called the parents or went to talk with them and let them know what had transpired, Borgsmiller said.

"Bootheel Counseling Services has been working with us as well in providing some counseling for those who chose to use it," he explained. "Some of the parents did sit down with their child with the counselor and visited, other parents wanted their child to come home, some wanted their child to go back to class, they felt that's where they needed to be. It was basically trying to provide support and trying to help the children, much less the adults, deal with this. Everybody goes through a range of emotions in dealing with something like this."

Counselors will return to the classrooms again today.

Bootheel Counseling Services also is providing crisis counseling for drivers who were in the area at the time of the accident.

"Every day for the first two weeks of school you go over bus routines. You're supposed to go to your bus stop, you're supposed to stay at your bus stop. The teachers in the classroom go through bus safety; stay here, do this...," said Borgsmiller, who along with Lee Hunter Elementary School Principal Chuck Mays spent part of Tuesday morning at Missouri Delta Medical Center where the child was pronounced dead.

Additionally, the school bus drivers always receive training in safe and responsible driving right before school starts, as they did this year.

"It's horrible, it's a parent's worst nightmare," Borgsmiller said. "On behalf of Sikeston Public Schools, we are deeply sorry for the loss of the Harris family. It was a tragic accident."

"You wish that something like this wouldn't happen," Juden said. "The message here is if you miss the bus, don't go chasing it down the street. When you come up from behind a bus, or any large vehicle like that, it is hard for the driver to see you."

"I hope that kids will monitor each other a little better," Juden said. "Maybe putting parents or adult supervision at bus stops is something we may need to consider."