LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — School bus stop safety is something people in Lehigh Acres were already talking about - before Friday's accident.
"Don't ever get close to the road, you know, stay as far back as you can," Mariah Foster said she'll tell her children this Monday as they wait for the bus.
They even mowed the stop at Columbus Boulevard and Ermine Street where a car hit a child Friday morning.
Watch Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
"They just did the bus stops, and everyone was so excited about it and thought that the kids were going to have a safe place to hang out and not be at risk as much as they were before, so it's just heartbreaking," Foster said.
The Lee County School District gave Fox 4 this statement last week,
"Our bus stops are located on the public easement, so the responsibility to maintain the property is the property owner...All of our bus stops meet or exceed state standards to be considered safe."
Foster said she feels like the school district disregards her and other parents concerns.
"It's not really their problem, and there's not much that they can do about it or so they say, and they say that the bus stops are private property, but all of our kids go there," she said.
It's been an issue in Lee County for years.
In 2019, eight-year-old Layla Aiken died in Cape Coral when a car hit her as she waited for the bus.
Layla and her brother were sitting on the ground by the road.
After her death, people across the county raised money to buy picnic benches for school bus stops.
Foster believes sidewalks are the real solution.
"How do we take the steps that need to be done because there's a lot of people that feel like we need them?," she said.
