R.I.P.

If God had truly wanted to bless this child, he would have made the situation not happen in the first place. A very sad and tragic event... Our condolences to all involved.

My sympathies and tears to this family now living the nightmare of all parents and family members. There is never anything worse than the sudden loss of a child. I hope they know they do not mourn and grieve alone.

OhMy999999..........exactly....good post

Rest in peace, little one. My respects to the family, friends and bus driver.

OhMy999999 - we are all unaware of our time on this phase of life. Please do not be paltry by trying to change this tragedy to a religious or political agenda.

My prayers for all...

What a shame. I know where I live all bus drivers (both school and public) drive too fast and many of them have a real chip on their shoulders for some reason. Something like this should never, ever happen. How sad.

Considering we don't know the specifics, hold off on a push for a lawsuit. We don't know if she ran out in front of the bus without looking or if the driver was at fault. This could have been an accident that had a sad ending to it.

If I remember correctly, Arkansas school buses only have to carry $10k of liability insurance. My condolences to the family and my thoughts are also with the driver.

Not necessarily millions. My daughter was hit by a school bus running a red light. She was making a left turn on a green arrow. The bus literally ripped her truck in half sending a wheel down the street for two blocks. Fortunately she was not critically injured thanks to air bags. Most government offices are exempt from suits and any suits are then turned over to your OWN insurance!! I call bull on this!

NStiz -

I highly doubt a 7 year old was driving, so air bags in this case are moot. Glad your daughter wasn't critically injured, though. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family. When I get home from work I will hug my 8 year old daughter harder than usual and same with my husband who insists that he walk her to the bus stop and wait until she gets on the bus.

There was enough of a story in the headline to start generating ad revenue. NBC thanks you for your clicks. Please remember to click early and click often.

A law suit because of a lack of specifics in a news article? Now that's what I call frivolous...

My thoughts exactly, 6:30 am is entirely to early to be catching a school bus once daylight doesn't occur now until about 7:15. I have to wonder what neandrethal in DC came up with idea of shifting DST to start so late in fall, and early in the spring. I don't really see any savings of elect. use.

Oh yeah, my condolences to the family of the little girl that was killed this morning.

Unfortunately they start early probably for parent's convenience with both parents working nowdays. Need to get the kids to the bus stop so they can get to work on time.

The early start time has nothing to do with the parents convenience or daylight savings time. Bus routes and times depend on how far you live from the school. This child may have lived farthest from the school and had to be one of the first or almost first to catch the bus.

The problem is, we don't know if the child shot out into the street and the driver didn't have enough time to stop. There are factors that haven't been mentioned as we don't know what exactly happened. I agree that most accidents can be avoided if people were more aware, but there are some circumstances where you can be fully aware of what is around you, but have something happen before you could even respond. I'm not saying this is what happened, but the girl could have stepped out between two parked vehicles that may have blocked her view of the bus and the driver's view of the girl. If they find the driver responsible, good. They get punished. If it was just a horrible accident, then all you can do is mourn the loss of a child and hope that something is done where parents start walking with their kids to school, teach kids a better habit to look before stepping into the street, or any other possible improvements to lower the risk of something like this happening.

This enitre tragic accident is sad! My prayers go out to the child's family and to the driver's family as well. My niece and nephew were on that bus this morning when the child was hit. The school didn't even call us to inform us on what had happened. I feel awful for the kids that were on the bus as well, I know my niece and nephew will never forget this day. When you send your child off to school you hope that the only worry they will have, would be who will set next to me at lunch, not worry about not making it home from school.

Most killings with guns aren't on accident.

My husband also drives a morning bus route. We all know buses can't wait until after daylight to make their routes, and it is dark longer in the mornings now. Large, rural, or consolidated school districts have long distances to travel to collect all of the riders, which means starting early. No one needs to jump to conclusions about who is ultimately at fault, of if this is indeed a horrible accident. Many victims with the worst being a family that lost a child, but the driver has to live with, deal with, and possibly depending on the circumstances be punished for this. I went to visitation on Wed. of the death of a traffic accident 23 year old young man. His parents, are dealing with the loss of a child no matter what age.(Wet conditions and hydroplaned) It's disappointing to lump all bus drivers as bad people/drivers because of some terrible wrecks and accidents. Also, already discussing lawsuits and monetary compensations. That should never be mentioned until the final investigation is given determining what happened. Thank you for letting me vent.

Sam, this had absolutely nothing to do with guns.

Just to address some previous comments. It is bad that buses pick up in the dark. Large, rural, and consolidated school districts are large and the drivers have alot of geography to cover. Who can have as their first thought financial lawsuits before the investigation is done.

The road was rural and dark. The 7 year old child was a friend of the bus drivers grand child and played at his house. The buses (to be safe and keep children from crossing the road) go past homes to pick up children on that side of the road, then pick up children from the homes they passed by on the way back. The bus was passing her house and she ran out in front of the bus crossing the road, when he was going to be picking her up as he came back by. All involved are devastated!

I agree. I even remember waiting for the school bus and watching kids push each other into the streets or run around without looking for traffic. There were a few times where a car almost hit one of the kids because they were so focused on playing with those waiting and running around.

So sad. I have an 8 year old daughter & I can't imagine losing her to something like this.

AR Mom of 4 -

I didn't trash her parents. I merely said I am glad my husband insists on taking my daughter to the bus stop (because I'm already at work) before he goes to work; I said to him that I thought my daughter would be made fun of because her parent takes her to the bus stop. Boy, was I wrong! Wet noodle on my face! I did not ONCE trash her parents.

Prober-1

Explain yourself. My first sentence was supposed to be sarcastic; I think NStiz and other posters know this. I said I was glad her daughter wasn't critically injured and expressed my condolences to the family, which is more than I can say for you. Prober-1, I think you are the idiot.

Several years ago, the same thing happened to a little girl right down the street from where I lived at the time. Because of that, bus monitors were instituted in my state (they weren't required before). My heart goes out to the family of the little girl, her friends, others at the bus stop who saw this happened (if there were others around), and the bus driver.

Your right Jo, with all the extra mirrors and other safety devices school buses are much safer than back in the days when I rode them. Unfortunately we can't ever rule out human behavior/error (either driver or rider) when it comes to accidents. Parents, preach & teach safety to your kids; you can't do it oft enough! Schools, bus companies; same thing with your drivers! They are carrying very precious cargo with them!

When my uncle was in middle school, he was waiting at the bus stop when he saw a deaf boy get hit by a bus and his head crushed. Freaked him out for a long time and made the city put someone there to watch over the children.

Wait a minute now... You're the one that believes in a mythical being living in the sky who has the power to grant miracles (except in cases of this little girl), and I'm the one that's way off base?

A wise man once said, "Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self."

9999 - showing what morons always show...

OhMy999999, the stream of thought here is to express condolences for a little girl who lost her life due to a tragedy caused by what appears to be human error.

Not sure how your rant against God fits into this.

Since you insist; however, you're the one who believes that everything in this ordered universe created itself. Out of nothing came something and a whole bunch of laws of physics. And then this something, contrary to the laws of thermodynamics, created more and more complex somethings right up to and including DNA.

A frog plus a kiss = prince (fairy tale). A frog plus billions of years = prince (atheism).

I believe in a universe created by a good God intent on having a good relationship with His created human beings in a world devoid of sin and tragedy. However, those human beings chose for themselves a selfish, self-willed existence [enter moral failure (sin), human frailty and fallibility, and tragedy] and have consistently rebelled against this good God and each other...

This narrative does a lot more to explain the headlines than does atheism. "Good" makes no sense in the context of evolution where the only purpose of existence is temporal dog-eat-dog survival of the fittest as we "evolve" to some higher plane of existence. Over the millennia, our technologies have improved, but human basic character issues remain the same.

Some choose to measure "human advancement" by the sophistication of our technology toys and social theoris. Others choose to measure advancement by inherent character. The latter indicates no advancement since Cain murdered his brother, Abel.

Yep. WAAAYY too much Kool-Aid for Ricky Frank....

The bus picks her up from her house and apparently the mother saw the accident take place.

on rural routes they pick up at the end of the driveway in most states, and at least here in podunk IL you can see the bus coming for miles so you send the kids out as the bus is coming down the road.

My daughter gets on the bus at 6:45 every morning. He stop is right in front of my house and I am watching here from my window till she gets on the bus. It is just the way it is these days. Fewer buses, less routes means kids have to get on the bus earlier and earlier.