Girl Riding School Bus Dies after Accident Involving Tree

Updated: Friday, 21 May 2010, 4:02 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 20 May 2010, 5:33 PM EDT

By TARYN ASHER



DETROIT - A heartbreaking accident in southwest Detroit as a little girl is killed while riding the school bus. It happened after school. The fifth grader had her head out of the window when the bus came too close to a tree.

A teddy bear on a tree serves as a tragic reminder of what happened to an eleven-year-old girl in front of her classmates and her own sister, who was riding the bus at the time.

"She stuck her head out the window, and she said, 'Christianna,'" said Christianna Garcia. "I turned around and then her face hit the tree."

Eleven-year-old Tiffany Ross-DiCicco was waving to Christianna. Her friend says Tiffany was leaning out the window to say good-bye to her as the bus pulled away from Detroit's Phoenix Academy on Pershing. Students standing nearby say they tried to warn the fifth grader to sit back down, but it was too late.

"We said, 'Put your head back in. You're about to get hit by a tree.' And then she said, 'What?' And then blood just started gushing out," said a student.

Emergency crews rushed Ross-DiCicco to Children's Hospital where she later died from her massive head wounds. Witnesses say the bus was trying to pull around a car to let another bus in when the accident happened.

Detroit Police and Michigan State Police were on scene investigating, trying to determine how this happened and who was at fault. In the meantime, the bus driver, who works for DHT Transportation, a company outsourced by Detroit Pubic Schools to drive the buses, has been removed from his routes.

"We're going to let the investigation take place. There are experts investigators within the Detroit Police Department, and we're going to let those individuals do their jobs and address the consequences that comes as a result of this very, very, very tragic situation," said Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb.

Bobb says it is a tough time for Detroit Public Schools. This is the sixth student to lose their life in the last ten days.

"There is not a whole lot that one can say to the parents when they bring their children to our schools and they expect that at the end of the day their children will return home safely," Bobb said.

A traumatic time, he says, for Ross-DiCicco's family and those who witnesses this tragic accident.

We are told both Ross-DiCicco's brother and sister attended Phoenix Academy. Grief counselors are expected to be on hand all day Friday to help the students cope with this loss, especially those who were on the bus at the time.

From: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/deadly-accident-on-detroit-school-bus-20100520-ms