CAPE CORAL — A Cape Coral family said a Lee County School Bus hit and killed their dog, and then drove off.
That family said they haven’t been able to get any answers from the school district. This all happened back on November 6th.
Meghan Maitland said her dog Cooper ran across Chiquita Blvd. around 6:00 in the morning, just as a school bus was coming by. She said her mother heard the crash, and was shocked to see the dog in the road, but she was even more shocked to see the bus speed back up and drive off.
Maitland said Cooper was only 2-years-old. She said, if the bus driver had been following the speed limit, Cooper might still be with her.
“She made an attempt to, I think to swerve and avoid the dog, but because she was going too fast, she couldn’t," said Maitland.
There are still skid marks in the roadway where Maitland said the bus hit its brakes.
“I’m almost 100 percent positive that the tire ran him over. I think the back tire ran him over," said Maitland.
“To walk over there, and just to see him laying there, you know with his insides laying on the highway so to speak. You know and then somebody just takes right off. That’s terrible," said Maitland's mother Kimberly.
Kimberly Maitland actually saw the accident. She called the police, and officers filed a report. It said they spoke with the driver of the bus, who reported seeing the dog and hearing a "thump". The bus driver then told officers they "slowed down, looked out their window, and then continued on their bus route."
“That could have been a child out there is one of my biggest concerns and frustrations," said Meghan Maitland.
Maitland said the intersection is used as a bus stop. We reached out to the school district, and it responded saying "We sympathize with the owner over the loss of their pet but due to a threat of pending litigation we cannot comment at this time.”
Maitland said, she doesn’t want litigation. She wants that driver out from behind the wheel of a school bus.
“That lady, having other lives in her hands, I don’t feel that she is responsible or even careful enough to do so," said Maitland.
In the police report, the officer said they spoke with a supervisor in the school district transportation department, who said the driver did not follow protocol, and it would be "handled accordingly".
We asked the district how infractions like that are handled, but we did not receive a response.
