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No charges in bus stop fatality
By JAMIE THOMPSON
Published February 23, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - No one will be cited in the death of Brooke A. Ingoldsby, the 8-year-old who was killed while crossing a busy street on her way home from school two weeks ago.
The 18-year-old driver who hit Brooke did nothing wrong, and the Pinellas school bus driver who dropped her off on the wrong side of the street broke no laws, Officer Joseph C. Pratt wrote in a final report released Wednesday.
The bus driver, 75-year-old William Ralston, resigned Tuesday, citing personal reasons, school officials said.
The report brings to an end the police investigation into the fatal accident.
Pratt found that the 18-year-old driver, Geoffrey M. Yee, was not speeding as he traveled south on Dr. Martin Luther King Street N. just before 5 p.m. on Feb. 11. He was traveling about the speed limit - 40 mph - when Brooke ran in front of his car, Pratt said.
Yee was not able to see Brooke running across the street because another car was obstructing his view, Pratt said.
Bus driver Ralston erred in leaving the third-grader on the wrong side of the street, forcing her to cross five lanes of rush-hour traffic, police said. But that's a school district matter, not a police matter, officials said. Pratt's job was to figure out what happened in the road, he wrote.
He said Brooke traveled directly in the path of cars, giving them inadequate time to stop.
Brooke, a student at James B. Sanderlin Elementary, was dropped off about an hour late at her bus stop on 90th Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N. Her grandmother had been waiting, but left briefly to check back at the girl's home to see if she was there.
Brooke was buried last week.
Pinellas school officials are grappling with the district's transportation system. Brooke was the second student killed this school year after being dropped off a school bus.
-- Jamie Thompson can be reached at 727 893-8455. Send e-mail to jthompson@sptimes.com
[Last modified February 23, 2005, 18:56:02]
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