Wakefield student falls off moving school bus

WAKEFIELD, Mass. — A child is recovering after he fell out of the back of a moving school bus in Wakefield.

The incident happened Wednesday as the bus was pulling out of the Galvin Middle School parking lot.

“My friend was texting me in the group chat. She said she saw him leaning...[he] fell out the back door,” said Ava Vaughn, a student.

Thankfully, Ava said a car driving behind the bus at the time was able to stop without hitting the boy. The boy suffered minor injuries but is expected to be okay.

"The cars behind him luckily stopped, so they didn't run him over," Ava said.

"It could've been a lot worse," said Liza Vaughn, a parent. "How does this even happen in the first place? Was he not in the seat?"

At first, the investigation focused on whether or not the bus was overcrowded. The state law for the operation of school buses is clear: According to Section 7B of Chapter 90, the bus operator can't allow the number of students to exceed the number of seats on the bus, and the operator can't drive the bus until every student is seated. If the bus has adequate straps and handles, three people might be allowed to stand, but not on a regular basis.

Wednesday morning, Superintendent Kim Smith said that overcrowding on the bus had been ruled out; the bus was only half full at the time.

The school bus has been taken out of service while the investigation into how this all happened continues.

"I ride a bus a lot for soccer, and it's really concerning that someone could fall out," said Tyler Palmerino, a student.

Cox Media Group