Mom faces child abuse charges in bus incident
Son has foot injured while left unsupervised on street
A 31-year-old woman was arrested on felony child abuse charges Tuesday, the day after her 6-year-old son’s foot was run over by a school bus while he was unsupervised, Las Vegas police said.
Kimberly Marie Russi, also known as Kimberly Dela Cruz, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on one count of child abuse and neglect with substantial bodily harm and one count of child abuse and neglect.
On Monday, witnesses saw the boy throwing rocks at cars from the median, darting in front of traffic and running into the bus around 6:40 a.m., the ReviewJournal learned.
Witnesses reported the child does this every day. The collision occurred on Las Vegas Boulevard North near Cheyenne Avenue.
The boy suffered substantial, nonlife-threatening injuries, according to police.
He was treated at University Medical Center. The boy’s condition was unknown Tuesday night.
Police said detectives determined the child who was struck by the bus and his older brother are commonly sent to the bus stop without supervision.
The driver of the bus was not at fault, police said. The bus that struck the child is not the bus he normally rides.
Although the driver was not at fault, policy calls for her to be drug tested and put on leave until the investigation is complete, according to a Clark County School District spokeswoman.
The spokeswoman was not allowed to divulge the boy’s identity. She confirmed that his bus was behind the one that struck him.
The boy attends Manch Elementary School, near Las Vegas Boulevard and Craig Avenue, about two miles northeast of the accident location.
Witnesses told investigators the boy — in the minutes leading up to the accident — was jumping into the lane of traffic and darting back onto the median as cars approached.
It was reported he saw the bus coming toward him and ran at it.
The driver swerved toward the curb to avoid him, but the boy ran into the rear driver’s side of the bus. He then walked to the curb, where blood could be seen on the pavement Monday.
The collision marks the second between a Clark County school bus and a child this year.
On March 16, Kaylee Derks was in the street when she was struck by a school bus, which dropped her off at Ann Road and Pebble Rock Drive, near U.S. Highway 95, and was returning after turning around in the neighborhood.
Investigators deemed driver Leslie Rice not at fault in the death of the 11year-old.
A child being struck and killed by a school bus remains rare in Clark County.
The Review-Journal could find only three cases in the past two decades.
More than 1,200 buses are on the road every school day in Clark County, the nation’s fifth-largest school district. They make 19,000 stops daily, transporting about 100,000 students.
Russi remained in the county jail Tuesday night on $40,000 bail. A Justice Court hearing has been set for Thursday morning.