Gabriel Grieling
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Child in critical condition after being hit by school bus
MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- A little Minneapolis boy remains in critical condition after being run over by a school bus. It happened at around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning at the corner of Elliott Avenue South and 32nd Street in south Minneapolis. This is a very busy area for children catching the bus every morning. "There's constant traffic around here and constant kids," says Ricardo Morales, who lives in the neighborhood. This time of year, those four corners are also very slippery. Police say 5-year-old Gabriel Greiling, a student at Windom school, waited for the bus Wednesday morning with his mother by his side. One bus pulled up. School officials say Gabriel and his mother got onboard, but left immediately when they realized it was the wrong bus. Police say the bus driver then closed the door, looked around, made note of the boy and his mother standing nearby before he drove away. But at that same moment, something else happened. "The child apparently slipped on the ice, fell under the wheels of the already moving bus and was run over," says Sgt. Bill Palmer with the Minneapolis Police Department. "When we looked out the window, the child was being held by an adult...crying and the bus was stopped," says Michael Otte who saw the aftermath. Little Gabriel suffered broken bones and other internal injuries. At this point, authorities are calling it an accident and will not likely issue any citations. "This appears to just be a freak accident the unfortunately that child slipped and fell underneath of a moving bus," says Sgt. Palmer. The bus, not operated by Minneapolis public schools, belonged to a private company and was headed to a charter school. Frank Zeman is transportation administrator for Minneapolis Public Schools. He says this tragedy is a reminder about school bus safety. He says the safest place to stand and wait for the bus is on the sidewalk and urges parents and students not to walk toward the bus while it's still moving. "The danger zone is ten feet around the whole school bus. Anytime a student can touch a school bus, they're too close," says Zeman. Police say a company called Minneapolis Suburban, out of Hastings, owns the bus. A statement from the bus company was released Wednesday evening. It said: "Our preliminary investigation indicates the five year old boy apparently slipped on the icy street and underneath our moving bus. We are continuing our investigation. At this point we are primarily concerned for the child, his family and our driver. Our thoughts and our prayers are focused there." According to the police report, the driver of the bus was 41-year-old Abdi Abdifatah of Eden Prairie.
(Copyright 2009 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
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