A 9-year-old Florida boy has died after he crawled underneath a school bus that was moving. The school bus had just dropped him off at his stop when the accident occurred.
The Orange County Public Schools bus was stopped at a roundabout on Tuesday, dropping off Elyas Marshall Rodriguez, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The highway patrol shared that the bus driver had begun driving after dropping Elyas off, but as he was making his way around the roundabout, the 9-year-old “ran back” and “crawled underneath” the bus.
The rear tire then “collided” with the boy, killing him, the highway patrol said.
The manner of death has been ruled an accident. The cause of death was determined to be cranial-cerebral trauma, the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office found.
The 54-year-old driver, who has not been publicly identified, remained at the scene, cooperating with the authorities, a press release shared.
Still, the incident is being considered a “very active traffic homicide investigation.”
Elyas was a student at Lawton Chiles Elementary School, and the district’s superintendent, Maria Vasquez, shared a statement on the incident on Tuesday.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of the tragic death of one of our precious students who was involved in a bus accident late this afternoon,” Vazquez said. “To lose a child so suddenly and tragically is extremely difficult, especially for family and friends.”