Apex boy hit by car at bus stop: 'I'm lucky to be alive'

It was a week ago that the West Lake Middle School sixth-grader was crossing Johnson Pond Road near Apex to get on his school bus when, authorities say, a teen driver going about 30 mph hit him with her car.

He's now out of the hospital but still faces a long road to recovery.

"They say I'm lucky to be alive," the boy said Tuesday. "I'm lucky to be here now."

The wreck, Burgess says, happened so fast. The bus had stopped, the lights were flashing, the stop sign and yellow bar were out.

Burgess says he stepped into the road, looked to his left and he just knew.

"It was going really fast, and it didn't look like it was going to stop," he said.

He landed in a ditch, his father says, about 30 feet from where he was hit.

"I was scared and frightened," the boy said.

The driver, Lindsey Tight, 16, who was on her way to school, told authorities she didn't see the stopped school bus in the morning fog. She was cited for failure to reduce speed and passing a stopped school bus.

Burgess's forehead is still swollen and is covered in scabs. He suffered a skull fracture. Bandages cover his right arm and left knee.

The real blessing, his father says, is that the injuries could have been a lot worse if his son's body tightened up instead of going limp.

"He's a miracle child," Burgess Sr. said.