Mom tells of anguish after daughter dies
Inlet Grove High student hit, killed by school bus
PALM BEACH COUNTY — The two of them had a pact. Natasha Dwyer was not to be distracted while walking to her school bus stop on the other side of a busy intersection. She was to text her mom the moment she got on the bus each day.
So when Latoya Jackson woke up and noticed she did not get a text from her oldest daughter Wednesday morning, she panicked.
And the news turned out to be even worse than she feared: A child on the way to the bus stop had been struck and killed by a school bus.
Jackson called Natasha’s phone and got no answer. She sent a text. Again, nothing.
And when three Uber drivers canceled her pickup when they couldn’t get near her apartment because of a blocked intersection, Jackson really began to panic. She stepped out of the apartment and looked toward the busy
intersection. She saw an empty school bus in the middle of the road.
She called Inlet Grove High School where Natasha was a sophomore in the medical program and asked if her daughter was in school. Jackson was not given an answer and instead was patched through to the assistant principal’s office. St. Mary’s Hospital is trying to reach you, she was told.
Just down the street from their apartment, Natasha had been struck by a Palm Beach County school bus. Her book bag lay in the middle of the road near the intersection of Haverhill land Elmhurst roads for at least 30 minutes. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
School crossing guard Carmen Soso said there aren’t crossing guards for the high school students, just middle and elementary. She started her shift at 7 a.m., 30 minutes after the Dwyer was struck by a school bus.
At the hospital, Jackson was preparing to hear that her daughter had a broken bone or two. Words that her daughter was dead and there was nothing they could do to save her pummeled Jackson. Her chest began to tighten so St Mary’s Hospital admitted her for observation for several hours.
“This is more than a nightmare,” Jackson said upon arriving home Wednesday afternoon, giving herself a few hours to figure out how to break the news to Natasha’s two sisters Dennia, 10 and Etana, 6 who were still at school.
In just six days, on Christmas Eve, Natasha was to turn 16. She turned her mother down when Jackson said she wanted to throw her a Sweet 16th birthday party. No Mom, she said, she wanted them — just the two of them — to have a special motherdaughter date at a hibachi grill.
Deal, her mother said.
Now Dec. 24 and Christmas will forever be a reminder of Natasha’s death, said her stepfather, Allan Broderick.
Walter “B.G.” Burks had been walking his dog at the corner of Haverhill and Elmhurts roads at 6:30 a.m. when he saw Natasha walking with a group of students heading toward the intersection.
He then saw the girl step away from the group and walk into road. He and others screamed “The bus. The bus,” just as the bus went by. Burks said he jolted and turned away for a moment only to see the bus continue.
He called 911 and told a dispatcher that a girl had just been hit by a school bus and to hurry because it looked pretty bad.
“I pray for her family,” Burks said. “It’s very horrible.”
Natasha became stuck under the bus and was dragged a short way. Burks said the bus driver was beside himself. According to a crash report from the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office, school bus driver Faniel Vilneus was stopped at a red light at the intersection and was making a turn when the teen crossed in front in his path.
“She was a brilliant little girl,” said Marcia FenellBell, Natasha’s grandmother. Earlier in the morning, before the accident, FenellBell ordered a Nancy Drew series of books for the granddaughter she considered to be more like a daughter.
The mostly quiet and contemplative girl who was a bit of a homebody and loved to read would come alive when she’d turn her cellphone video recorder on and tape herself dancing while all gussied up. Natasha loved to get dressed up and she especially loved long false eyelashes, Fenell-Bell said.
“I don’t know what to do now,” Natasha’s mother said. “I really don’t know what to do.”
Eileen Kelley can be reached at 954-356-4543