6-year-old awakes to find herself alone on a school bus at her bus driver’s home

A 6-year-old girl found herself alone on a school bus when she awoke at her bus driver’s home on Fisher Ferry on Wednesday.

After waking up from her trip to VWSD’s Summer Bridge Program held at Sherman Avenue Elementary, the six-year-old found herself completely alone and exited the bus through the rear emergency exit. The child then began to wander where she was picked up by a passing motorist. The motorist was able to bring her to a relatives house where the Warren County Sheriff’s Office was notified.

All information regarding the incident has been turned over to the Vicksburg-Warren School District according to Sheriff Martin Pace.

Sheriff Pace said to the Vicksburg Daily News, “It could have been real bad. Once our investigation is complete we will give all the information to the District Attorney to determine if any charges should be filed.”

Christi Kilroy with the school district issued the following statement:

“The safety of our students is our top priority. The district has safety protocol procedures for transporting students and all staff has been trained accordingly. Any reports or breaches of these protocols are investigated fully and the appropriate actions are followed. In order to increase safety, last school year we ordered the No Student Left Behind Alarm System devices for all buses to help eliminate human error. With this system, an alarm activates at the end of the route, and the driver has to walk to the back of the bus to turn it off. This ensures that the driver inspects each seat to confirm that the entire bus is empty. This system has been installed in some of our buses, but due to a backorder, not all devices have been delivered. We anticipate the entire fleet will be equipped with the devices by next school year.”