Child, 6, Hit By Bus On Last Day Of School

OTSEGO, Minn. (WCCO) -- A young girl is recovering Thursday night after being struck by a school bus on the last day of school.

It happened after the bus dropped off students near Padgett Avenue Northeast and 82nd Circle in Otsego. Neighbors say the parents of 6-year-old Keira Devens were watching as it happened, and tried to stop the bus.

"She was getting off the school bus. She had dropped something so she bent down, she got down to pick it all up, the bus driver didn't realize that she hadn't crossed the street to her house, and so she went and she got hit by the bus," neighbor Jamie Plantenberg-Selbitschka said.

Neighbors said Deven's parents had driven to the bus stop, saw what was about to happen, and tried to stop the bus driver.

"He just hopped out of the car and was running out there yelling at the bus to stop, they were both yelling at the bus driver to stop," neighbor Valerie Hickman said. "I heard them yelling so I came out and I saw her laying on the ground under the bus."

Hickman said the parents jumped out quickly.

"They must have forgotten to put the car in park, so then the car started rolling out after the bus," Hickman said.

Hickman said Devens was talking and alert but was banged up from head to toe.

"Her head was scraped up, her arm," Hickman said. "She had lost some teeth so her mouth was bleeding. Her leg was banged up."

It's a lesson this neighborhood full of kids and parents could live without on the last day of school.

"It makes you hold your kids a little tighter, give them a hug," Hickman said.

Neighbors said the bus driver was shaken and was in tears after the accident.