Ashleigh Jones, 8, is out of intensive care after nearly a month since she was hit by a car near her home. 

The Johnson Elementary second-grader, Ashleigh Jones, who was hit by a car Tuesday is in critical condition and is in a 72-hour medically induced coma at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, said Limestone County Director of Safety Rusty Bates on Wednesday.

Bates said Jones, 8, and her older brother Jacob got off school bus 131 on Copeland Road, the dividing road between East Limestone and Ardmore, just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. As Jacob walked home, Ashleigh crossed the street to check the mail, something she does on a regular basis. As she started back across the road for home, she was hit by a Mazda Miata.

Limestone County Chief Deputy Fred Sloss said the state of Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is handling the incident and any investigations associated with it, though, as of now, there are no charges against the 23-year-old male driver of the Miata.

“Limestone County Sheriff’s Department was there to secure the scene until ALEA made it and we assisted ALEA with their investigation by holding the traffic off the roads and blocking the roads,” Sloss said.

Bus video

When Jones was struck, the school bus was about 100 feet from where it dropped her and Jacob off, Bates said. He said there were 10 students left on the bus, eight of whom were sitting toward the back and witnessed the incident.

County authorities and state troopers reviewed surveillance tape from the bus and could see the Miata pass the bus on the opposite side of the road, but could not see the actual impact or estimate the driver’s speed.

Bates said the most disturbing part of the video came from students’ reactions.

“One of them actually sat with Ashleigh — that was her bus mate if you will,” he said. “They were all on the back of the bus, the children began to scream and holler and you can see the reaction well on the bus video.”

One student ran to the bus driver and alerted her to what happened. The bus driver quickly turned the bus around, called 911 and attempted to help Jones, Bates said.

First responders called MedFlight who flew Jones to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.

Johnson Elementary principal Brad Lewis said, though it was a difficult decision for her, the bus driver returned to work Wednesday morning.

“As teachers, part of our makeup is that we want to be there for the kids,” he said. “We’re going to pull together to help.”

Lewis said because Jones checked the mail on a regular basis, her bus driver always warned her about the dangers of crossing the road.

“Ashleigh is a very sweet girl but she can be kind of stubborn as well, and she’s been in the habit of going across the road every afternoon to check the mailbox,” he said. “It’s become kind of a joke that the bus driver has warned her and reminded her several times and she didn’t head the warning (Tuesday), unfortunately.”

Bates said authorities can’t say for sure whether Jones looked both ways before crossing the road, but based on students’ accounts, Jones’ brother got off the bus after she did and was walking toward the home when Jones “darted back across the road.”

“She was hit in the right lane as she entered the road, so she didn’t really get too far out in the road,” he said.

Though Lewis wasn’t at school when the incident happened, he said he drove to Birmingham when he found out so he could visit Jones’ family.

“This has had a tremendous impact on our school, we’re a small community school,” he said. “The second grade has really been affected by this — we have 57 students in Ashleigh’s two classes.”

The next day

Lewis rode on Jones’ bus Wednesday morning to offer support for the students and Jones’ bus driver. Once students arrived at school Wednesday morning, students on the bus ate breakfast in a “special room” where they didn’t have to answer questions from other students, Lewis said.

After breakfast, they went to the library where Lewis said he spoke to them and told them what happened as to clear up any confusion or misinformation. There were counselors there afterward for any student who needed to talk to someone.

He said he told the students the truth about what happened and used it as a learning experience for them.

“I believe in being honest with them and sharing the facts and using a teaching moment — Ashleigh unfortunately did not look both ways. Things we cover with smaller children, it’s part of our basic instruction,” he said. “Hopefully students will be more careful when crossing the road and listen and head the warning of their bus drivers. I wanted to reassure them that we love them and the community is behind them, and we will do everything we can to support them.”

Lewis said with the number of counselors waiting to help students, he feels like the students know they are cared about.

“Plus Johnson kids are tough — we talk about grit,” he said. “These kids have been faced with tornadoes and other things that have happened in our district, and it’s also a part of life, but we try to teach them how to be proactive and make good choices and good decisions.”

Limestone County Superintendent Tom Sisk said at a Wednesday press conference that everyone in the system is saddened and shocked.

“Every day, 136 school buses cover 9,000 miles of road, delivering safely more than 4,000 children every day,” he said. “Sometimes because we’ve gotten so good at it, we take it for granted but it is a tragic day for us and the system when any of our children are hurt.”

Sisk said student safety is the number one concern of those working in the Limestone County school system.

“Again I want to remind folks that our bus drivers do the best they can every day,” he said. “I guess this situation is kind of hard to really prevent. We did what we normally do — we deployed the arm, the bus was stopped, it was properly lit, the child exited the bus and it continued the route. This happened after that.

“We want to remind our parents and community stakeholders that safety has been and will continue to be our number one priority, and we will continue to look at our processes as we do after every event to see if there’s something we can do better.”

As far as preventative measures go to keep something like this from happening again, Sisk said there has been talk in the past about meeting the County Commission to lower the speed limit on Copeland Road, and after this incident, they may discuss revisiting that idea.

Sisk complimented the first responders and school system team who rushed to the scene, and those around the community and state education leaders who called to check on Jones and the Limestone County family.

How to help

Lewis said he appreciated everyone who reached out to Johnson faculty and students with support and the elementary school and Ardmore High School will have a “Hat Day” fundraiser Friday where students can pay $1 to wear a hat. Proceeds go to the Jones family for travel expenses.

“We’ve already had a number of people to reach out to us and a number of parents have donated gift cards for the Jones family,” he said.

Right now Lewis said the biggest thing the family needs is prayers.

“They need people to continue to think about them and keep them in their prayers,” he said. “The Johnson community and the Ardmore community will continue to work with them and see if we can provide help with any travel expenses.”

Lewis said when he spoke to Jones’ mother on Wednesday, she told him they are setting up a GoFundMe account for people to donate money for travel and medical expenses.

“This family is going to need some help,” he said. “It’s tough any time you have an accident like this, but to be far away from home — it’s taking them away from work and school so they’re going to need our assistance.”