A 14-year-old Fruita Monument High School student was killed Tuesday when she was hit by a car on the Redlands after missing the school bus.
According to a statement released by the Colorado State Patrol, Jessi Spurlock was walking north on Village Way near Broadway Elementary School when she was struck by a red Jeep Cherokee traveling south on the road.
Spurlock was walking with a friend back to the friend's house after they had missed the bus, said the friend's father, who asked not to be identified.
He said the two girls were walking in the road and didn't see the Jeep coming.
The impact knocked Spurlock out of her shoes and socks, the man said. His daughter tried to revive Spurlock with CPR until the paramedics arrived.
The girls missed the bus at their usual stop, he said, and were walking to the next stop when the bus passed them a second time. After that, he said the girls decided to walk home and call for a ride.
Glen Schultz, Laidlaw transportation's division manager, said the bus driver said she didn't see the two girls walking alongside the road.
Laidlaw policy dictates that drivers pick up students only at designated stops, Schultz said, but if the passengers or the driver see a student walking to the stop, the driver will usually wait for the student.
District 51 spokeswoman Julie Heacock said the high school sent its crisis team of counselors into the school to help the students cope with the death.
The state patrol said the driver of the Jeep, a 16-year-old who also attends Fruita Monument, was driving within the speed limit and will not be charged in the accident. Spurlock and her friend were walking in the road when she was hit, the state patrol said.
Redlands residents who live near the accident site said that the accident points to serious traffic problems in the area.
The curvy, poorly lighted streets were an accident waiting to happen, said Angel Goodman, whose son was nearly hit on his way to school last week.
Goodman and friend Sharon Poe have started a campaign to get drivers to slow down around the schools and in the neighborhood.
"I don't know why, as prosperous an area as this is, we don't have any lighting," Poe said.
Even though the driver wasn't speeding at the time of the accident, Poe said she hopes the tragedy will act as a reminder to area drivers to slow down and be extra careful in a neighborhood with so many young children.
"It's really easy to forget," Poe said. "We feel bad for the family and we pray for them, but then we forget."
Shannon Joyce can be reached via e-mail at sjoyce@gjds.com.
