Concord Boy Hit By Car After Getting Off School Bus

A 9-year-old boy was reportedly recovering at home in Concord yesterday after being struck by a car while trying to cross the street Wednesday afternoon.

WBZ is reporting the boy’s bus driver overshot his house and dropped him and his brother off at an intersection about 100 feet farther up Barrett’s Mill Road. Then, the bus reportedly turned off its flashers as the boys crossed a the roadway between two cars, at which point the 9-year-old was struck by a minivan that wasn’t going very fast, WBZ reports.

From WBZ:

The boy went to Children’s Hospital as a precaution. His older brother was unhurt. But police say the abnormal drop-off spot was clearly the start of trouble.

"Normally they would get off the bus with its lights flashing and cross the street in front of it,” says Concord Police Sargent John Kennedy. “But this time they went down the street and crossed in between the stopped vehicles.”

Barretts Mill Road is a long residential road that runs between typically higher speed arteries Lowell Road and the Concord Rotary, where route 2 and 2A diverge. The location of the accident – reportedly 34 Barretts Mill Road – is quite close to the intersection of Barretts Mill and Lowell roads.

School officials told WBZ that the bus driver is a veteran who has been doing this particular route since the beginning of the year. Missing the stop may not have been the bus driver’s only snafu, but Deputy Superintendent John Flaherty told WBZ the district won’t comment further “because there’s a potential disciplinary action involved here.”