CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Nearly a hundred parents, kids and neighbors filled Cape Coral Council Chambers Monday night asking city leaders to make bus stops safer after 8-year-old Layla Aiken was struck and killed while waiting for the school bus.
One of Aiken’s closest friends, 10-year-old Lillian Goff, told council members during public comment all she wants now is for kids her age to be able to wait for the school bus safely. “Layla dying on Monday never should have happened,” she said. “Riding the bus should be safe. Walking to the bus should be safe.”
She wore a necklace with Aiken’s picture, close to her heart she said. She spoke in front of city council members today alongside her mom asking for more streetlights to make bus stops more visible for kids and drivers.
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Her mom Randi Romanov founded Lights for Layla, an organization she said is working to make bus stops safer. “It’s dark outside. We can’t see what in front of us, let alone a little girl sitting in the grass away from the road,”
The Northwest Cape Coral Neighborhood Association also asked council for four-way stop signs at bus stops. And they asked for benches at bus stops like the one that was installed on NW 19th Terrace and NW 3rd Avenue after Aiken was run over last week.
Goff thinks the benches could’ve saved her friend’s life. “If we had a bench where she was, she would still be here today,” she said.
But council member John Gunter said regardless of what gets installed at bus stops, teaching kids what to do while waiting is key. “We’re going to have to sit down with those students in a classroom. Especially in elementary schools. And discuss with them good practices at the bus stop,” he said.
Romanov said the kids aren’t the ones to blame. “It’s hard to hear from city council that our children need to be responsible. But we also hear members saying yes we need benches, we need to do something. So, we are hopeful,” she said.
And the Northwest Cape Coral Neighborhood Association offered to help the city pay for some of those benches to get installed. And council members recommended building more sidewalks in neighborhoods, but now the question is how to fund them.
