Morrisville Residents Petition for Changes After Child's Death

Residents in one local community are pounding the pavement to get a school bus stop moved.

Posted 10:25 p.m. Apr 14, 2007 — Updated 11:02 p.m. Apr 14, 2007

MORRISVILLE, N.C. — Residents in one local community are pounding the pavement to get a school bus stop moved.

Anusha Vasudeva, a 12-year-old student at Ligon Middle School, was hit by a minivan while crossing Morrisville-Carpenter Road to catch her bus Monday morning. She died a day later at Duke University Hospital.

Police said she didn't look both ways before crossing the street, and the minivan driver wasn't charged.

Homeowners in the Ridgemont community are canvassing Morrisville neighborhoods and collecting signatures to send to the Wake County's School Transportation Department. The parents are pushing to get the bus stop moved into their subdivision.

"Why does it take a death to do this? This is very sad,” said resident Thelma Kammer.

It's not the first time parents have petitioned the school system to move the bus stop. They've done so at least twice before in the past four years, but school district administrators deemed the bus stop was safe and cited bus drivers' difficulty entering and exiting the subdivision

Now school system officials have said they will take another look at the bus stop.

"If they want to sign a petition and give more credence, that's fine,” said spokesman Michael Evans. “It will get reviewed according to the process. If they're not happy with the process, if we can accommodate them, I'm sure we will try."

On Saturday, Morrisville Mayor Jan Faulkner announced the town’s Board of Commissioners will consider passing a resolution urging Wake County school board members to move the bus stop.

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