12-year-old critically injured by car at Osceola County school bus stop

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — A 12-year-old boy was struck by a car while crossing the road at an Osceola County school bus stop early Thursday morning, according to Florida Highway Patrol troopers.
 
Troopers said Caleb Burgos, of Kissimmee, was crossing the road at around 6:30 a.m. to get to the bus stop at Cobblestone Circle and Partin Settlement Road.
 
According to troopers, the bus was traveling westbound on Partin Settlement Road and preparing to stop. Troopers said the bus had its amber lights on but had not deployed the stop bar.

As Burgos crossed the road he was struck by an eastbound Nissan driven by Angela Cabrera, 44, of Kissimmee.

"It was very dark, but he came out of nowhere, he just came out of nowhere," a tearful Mercedes Cabrera, a passenger in the car, told Channel 9's Janai Norman.

Burgos was flown to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando in critical condition.

A school official told Channel 9 that Burgos is a student at Neptune Middle School.

Troopers said two children were in the car with Angel and Mercedes Cabrera at the time of the accident. There were no other injuries in the accident.

"The yellow lights were starting to blink, we had no cars in front of us, so we crossed because he wasn't fully stopped," said Mercedes Cabrera.

"What we want people to realizes is, yes, technically you don't have to stop until that stop sign comes out, but if you know that's a school bus there, you know what's going on, go ahead and start coming to a stop so that we don't have this happen," FHP Sgt. Kim Montes said.

Mercedes Cabrera said she jumped out of the car to try to help the injured student while they waited for emergency crews to arrive.

"It was just an awful, awful accident. We're very devastated with all this," Mercedes Cabrera said. "Hopefully everything will be fine and he will be OK and God will pull him through of all this."

"You know as a pedestrian you are going to lose when you go up against a vehicle, and this is a 12-year-old boy who probably has crossed the road numerous times, saw the bus stopping and wanted to get to the bus stop. (He) saw the lights flashing but the red stop sign had not been activated," Montes said.

WFTV