ST. BERNARD, DIGBY COUNTY, N.S. – A six-year-old child was airlifted to hospital in Halifax after being hit by a vehicle on Highway 1 in St. Bernard, Digby County, on Friday morning, Jan. 11, as she was going to her bus stop.
According to the RCMP, at 7:39 a.m. a vehicle-pedestrian collision occurred on Hwy. 1 in St. Bernard, which is approximately 30 kilometres north of Meteghan.
“A man was driving a car south on Highway 1 when a child ran across the road in front of him,” an RCMP media release reads. “Due to other children being on the roadside at the same time, he was not able to avoid the child and struck her.”
There was no school bus on the scene at the time this incident occurred.
Both RCMP Corporal Jennifer Clarke and Tri-County Regional Centre of Education communications officer Tanya Forrest said the child was going to her bus stop when she was struck.
“From reading the file and speaking to the members he had nowhere to go,” Cpl. Clarke said about the driver. “He didn’t want to lose control because there were other kids on the road there.”
“She was going to her bus stop, and crossing the road, the bus wasn’t there yet,” Forrest said.
The RCMP said the six-year-old child was transported via LifeFlight to Halifax with what are believed to be serious injuries. The driver of the car was not physically injured but was shaken up.
The matter remains under investigation by the RCMP. Reports are that the girl suffered a broken leg.
Forrest said that as far as the TCRCE understands from speaking to the girl’s school principal (she is a student of Weymouth Consolidated School) it was her two siblings that were present when the accident occurred. Forrest said they were told there were no other students present.
The school bus that arrived on the scene a few minutes later with students aboard did not stop at the scene.
Forrest said there is always student services personnel present at schools and between that person and the principal, anyone at the elementary school who needed to talk about what had happened had support available to them. The TCRCE also made an offer of added support, if needed.
Highway 1 was closed for 90 minutes Friday morning while police and emergency personnel were on scene.
