The life of a 13-year-old girl tragically ended in Bauska County.
The teenager got off the bus and immediately ran across the road, not noticing that a car was approaching in the opposite lane. The speed limit in this area is 90 km/h, and the impact was too strong, reports the show Degpunktā (TV3).
The tragic collision occurred shortly after 7:00 PM on the stretch of road between the villages of Ritausmas and Berzi. After an excursion, the school bus was returning to Islice Primary School and stopped at the roadside to drop off two girls closer to home.
The driver allegedly warned them not to rush and not to run across the road; however, unfortunately, the warning went unheard. At that moment, a Volkswagen car was driving in the opposite lane, which struck one of the children. The girl ran onto the road from behind the bus. Whether the second girl stayed in place or managed to cross the road first is not known for sure by local residents. An elderly woman living near the scene recounts that services worked there for three hours.
Even before the medics arrived, one of the witnesses noticed a municipal police crew from Bauska County nearby and asked the law enforcement officers to intervene.
The head of the municipal police of Bauska County, Reinis Ikauņieks, says:
"My officers were on the scene within a minute and established that the girl was lying unconscious. They began to provide the necessary first aid until the emergency medical service arrived."
Unfortunately, the injuries were too severe, and despite the efforts of the emergency services, the girl passed away.
"The most terrible thing is that she was sent to visit a friend. They probably were coming back from an excursion… The friend lives there, beyond the grove, while the girl herself was from Varpa. It is said that her mother was very worried about allowing her to go… She was also at the scene," says a man living nearby the accident site.
After getting off public transport, the safest way to cross the road is to wait until the vehicle leaves and the road becomes clearly visible. If you go around the vehicle from the front, you cannot see if someone is going to overtake it, and if you go around from behind, you cannot see if someone is approaching in the opposite lane.
Drivers should also remember that when they see a stopped public transport vehicle, someone is likely to be getting off. They need to be especially attentive and reduce their speed. This bus had a yellow identification sign "children's group" on the window.
