Child hit near bus stop, family wants something to be done

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WECT) - A family in Leland says something needs to be done, after their 8-year-old was hit by a truck near his bus stop on Cedar Hill Road Friday.  Highway Patrol Officers say after the school bus pulled away, Shaun Freeman tried to cross the street, when he stepped out from behind the bus he was hit by a vehicle coming in the opposite direction.

"I don't even think, or blink, or think about it for the first minute or two, nothing came into focus until I was standing over him," said Sherrick Freeman, after he heard the news he raced to the intersection of Davis Way and Cedar Hill Road.

"There is no words for it, it's past terrifying," said Freeman. The impact of the truck broke Shaun's collarbone, his pelvis, his ribs, and gave him a concussion and a bruised lung.

"He's lucky," said Freeman.  Freeman says more should have been done to keep his son safe. The bus stop is on the opposite side of the road from where the busses pull in to pick up the students, Freeman said Shaun's sister's bus came to pick her up, and claims that Shaun started to ask the bus driver to help him cross the road safely so he could go back to the bus stop. Shaun's dad says before his son could finish, the bus pulled away.

"He started to ask, and pointed toward the bus stop, and [the driver] closed the door in his face," said Freeman.

The Brunswick County School system says they put the driver on administrative leave as soon as the crash happened, pending an investigation. The school system says after a thorough investigation, they reinstated the driver on Monday.

Shaun's parents say more should have been done.

"There was nothing I could do to prevent it from happening, but at this point there is a lot I can do to prevent it from happening to somebody else," said Freeman. He says he plans to continue investigating the matter himself.

The school system says because the bus driver was 50 yards away from the crash when it happened, the bus driver isn't considered part of the accident. The school bus is not mentioned in the crash report.

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