Mother ‘shocked’ learning that motorcycle nearly missed hitting her 6-year-old son getting off school bus
TROUTMAN, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Authorities are searching for a biker who almost hit a young boy as he was running off his school bus and across the street home.
Officials released clear pictures of the person on the motorcycle who violated the stop-arm law, and the boy’s mom is hoping someone comes forward with information – so this doesn’t happen to another child again.
Photo ‘didn’t do it justice’
The sounds of Maverick Richards and his siblings playing in the family’s living room are music to his mother’s ears.
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Carrie Richards believes she came close to losing her son Thursday, but 6-year-old Maverick thought nothing of it – he didn’t tell his mother what had happened until bedtime.
“He told me he almost got hit in the face by a motorcycle. I thought he meant by a matchbox car or something,” Richards said.
Richards says she was shocked when she finally pieced together her son’s story.
“I didn’t know what to say because the picture they sent me didn’t do it justice because it looked way further away than the video,” she said.
But a video released by North Carolina State Highway Patrol showed Richards that a biker barely missing Maverick as he got off the bus on Carlyle Road. Troopers also released pictures of the person of interest on a Kawasaki Ninja 400.
The pictures show the biker in a black and red helmet, and a black Alpine Stars jacket with red and white trim under the arm.
“The video was a lot more alarming,” Richards said.
Eight-year-old Jullien Vanderburg was on Maverick’s bus when the motorcycle passed. He says what he witnessed was scary.
“He was walking right there to the back road,” explained Jullien. “And this and this man starts speeding right across. And he goes by. Then they will start to say sorry. And he went past zooming, too. Yeah, I thought he was going to get run over.”
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Jullien says now riders have a new procedure to keep them safe.
“So the bus driver said, wait for me to say the result to go across. So, you won’t get hit,” he said.
Recent surveys show 41.8 million school bus stop-arm violations happen nationwide each year.
“I hope they find him. I mean, he didn’t just break that law,” Richards said. “I mean, there was no traffic coming and he went into the other lane, but you’re not supposed to pass because there’s no dotted line.”
Investigators say the motorcycle was spotted in two other places in southern Iredell County: near U.S. 21 at Julian Place and again at Pine Lake Preparatory School in Mount Mourne between 2:40 and 4:20 p.m.
Any information on the biker will be helpful to highway patrol troopers. They’re asked to call 828-466-5500 or *47.
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