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

The incident happened on Copeland Road, the dividing road between East Limestone and Ardmore after Jones exited a school bus, checked the family mailbox and started back across the road.

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.”

There have been no charges in connection with the incident.