CAIRO, Ga. - Police in Georgia will not bring charges against a driver accused of fatally striking a 6-year-old child crossing the street near a school bus stop.
Investigators determined there wasn’t sufficient cause to charge the 28-year-old woman who was behind the wheel during the crash, according to a statement from the Cairo Police Department on Tuesday.
Interim police chief Giovannie Santos called the fatality a “tragic accident.” The driver wasn’t identified.
Eastside Elementary School first grader Jaden Richardson and his sister walked up to a Legion Boulevard bus stop on Monday morning before realizing they missed their ride to school, witnesses told police. When Richardson began running back across the street to tell his mother what happened, he was hit by the oncoming vehicle, police said. Another witness told investigators that there was nothing the driver could do to prevent the crash, the Thomasville Times-Enterprise reported.
Richardson was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead an hour later.
There is no crossing guard at the area where the crash happened, Grady County School Superintendent Kermit Gilliard told news outlets. The district provided counselors for teachers and students following the loss, Gilliard said.