RALEIGH — March 21, 1996 - 11:01 a.m. EST

A 5-year-old Raleigh girl remains in critical condition after she and her brother were hit by a Raleigh city bus during evening rush-hour traffic.

Police say 7-year-old Russell Lancaster Junior, and his 5-year-old sister, Cassaundra, were both riding on the same bike along Raleigh Boulevard about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The children were biking on the sidewalk -- down a steep hill -- when the Capital Area Transit bus made a right turn onto Millbank Street from the northbound lanes of Raleigh Boulevard.

The children then rode off the sidewalk in front of the bus, police said.

"I hollered out, `Stop! The kids! The kids!' because I knew the kids were going to hit the bus," Kenneth Mitchell, a passenger on the bus, toldThe News & Observer

"There was nothing he (the bus driver) could do about it," Mitchell said.

The girl was run over by the bus. She is still in the hospital with two broken legs and severe internal injuries.

Her brother was treated at Wake Medical Center for a broken leg. He went home Wednesday night.

Mitchell said the children's mother lives near the intersection and arrived soon after the accident. "She was hysterical," he said