CARIBOU, Maine — A 17-year-old Caribou teen was taken to Cary Medical Center after he was struck by a school bus Friday afternoon.
Caribou police Officer Jason Matheson said Friday evening that the accident that injured the male juvenile took place just after 3 p.m. on Sweden Street.
Matheson said that the teenager was walking when he entered a crosswalk and was hit by a bus from the Eastern Aroostook RSU 39 school district.
Police are not yet sure what happened. They are interviewing witnesses to see if the teen was distracted when he stepped into the crosswalk.
The names of the teen and the bus driver are not being released at this point.
Matheson credited Timmy Guerrette and Greg Belanger of the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department, who he said did an excellent job at the scene and getting the teen to the Caribou hospital.
No further information on the teen’s condition was immediately available.
Matheson was assisted by Officer Doug Bell.
They are big, yellow, and hard to see when you are texting.
A lot of kids have been killed because they where texting and walked right into the road without looking. A young girl was run over by a bus and killed last year on her way to school. The bus was turning and she never looked up, just walked right into the road.
yeah and I suppose the crosswalk was hard to see for the bus driver?
give me a break, whether the teen was ‘distracted’ or not, the law is the law and this driver needs to find a new line of work
We never should have given pedestrians the right of way in the first place. The whole time you are raising your kids you teach them not to run out in front of cars. Then the law says it is okay? lol. Seriously though, cars, trucks, and buses are rolling carnage, sometimes piloted by blind old ladies and gentlemen. Look both ways before stepping into their path and you will live a lot longer.
Bravo! Pedestrians must realize that although they have the right of way, it takes time for vehicles to stop. You can’t expect trucks and buses to stop immediately just because you step into the crosswalk. Pedestrians must also check to see if all oncoming vehicles are slowing down or just yield the right of way so you don’t get hurt trying to cross a street.
Finally someone gets it! No law will ever replace stupidity or common sence.
Do you think the driver of the bus could slam on the brakes and stop in a split second? Sounds like the kid wasn’t looking where he was going.
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You still don’t walk in front of moving bus, even though you had the right of way.
actually you HAVE the right-of-way and the bus driver should have stopped and been paying attention….NOT the other way around
He lost his right of way when the bus didn’t stop for him.
Stepping into a cross walk does not put you in a protective bubble. Yes, vehicles are supposed to yield to you, but it doesn’t always happen. It is the responsibility of the driver of a vehicle to yield, just as it is the responsibility of the pedestrian to WAIT until all vehicles have stopped before crossing.
The pedestrian has the right of way if he’s already on the crosswalk. He does not have the right to step off the crosswalk in front of a near, moving vehicle.
With every right comes a responsibility. It is the responsibility of the person crossing the road, crosswalk or not, to make sure that a driver sees them and also has time to safely stop and allow them to walk across the road. Right of way doesn’t always end up being safe.
especially when you have a bus driver that is breaking state law…
What if the bus was too close to the crosswalk to stop when the teen entered it? That’s a possibility too. It is a pedestrian’s responsibility to make sure the road is SAFE to cross before crossing. A crosswalk does not put you in a bubble, protecting you from all things in the road.
Texting While Walking: How Distracted Pedestrians Are Hurting Themselves
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/30/texting-while-walking_n_1717864.html
On city streets, in suburban parking lots and in shopping centers, there is usually someone strolling while talking on a phone, texting with his head down, listening to music, or playing a video game. The problem isn’t as widely discussed as distracted driving, but the danger is real.
I sit in a coffee shop and watch texters run into each other, hydrants, sign posts, walls; you name it. Great fun and hilarious to watch!
LOL, there is a reason I take texting and driving seriously. I walked into a stop sign while looking something up on my cell phone and really smacked my head. . .oh well, no brains, no brain damage. I’m OK.
Driver did see the teen walking than all at once the teen just walked out in front of the bus. He had his head down. This is any bus drivers worse nightmare.
I hope that the teenager is okay. And the driver must be a wreck tonight also.
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So why did he step in front of a big yellow bus? Did he think he had the right of way and the bus could stop on a dime?
Praying for the teen, that he recovers quickly…also praying for the bus driver…I cannot imagine what he is going through right about now……
The State law…unless changed in recent years…was that you are to stop when someone is in the crosswalk on your side of the street….if he didn’t step into the crosswalk until the bus was right there then the driver has done nothing illegal. I don’t know that area at all but some streets are not very wide and just a couple steps into a crosswalk and you are in front of vehicles. I hope the kid recovers completely however the bus driver may not have done anything wrong.
State law (29-A MRSA, section 2056, sub-section 4) requires operators to “yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing within a marked crosswalk”. The law doesn’t say anything about which side of the street they are on.
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/29-A/title29-Asec2056.html
Really people? A 17 year old young man was hurt, and you have to make rude comments? How about simply making the comment “hope he is okay, or, will be okay soon” and leaving it at that? You dont know what happened! So why on earth would you even say something like that? The very least you could do is hold your negative comments until you know the story!
“They are interviewing witnesses to see if the teen was distracted when he stepped into the crosswalk.”
While you’re at it, you could also check to see if the bus driver was distracted when they hit a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk.