- A middle school girl in Lee County was struck by a car at her bus stop, but her heavy backpack absorbed enough of the impact to prevent catastrophic injuries.
A middle school girl in Lee County is recovering at home after a terrifying Tuesday morning at her bus stop on Coconut Road turned into something nobody ever wants to live through. And something her grandparents definitely didn’t sign up for when they started their day.
The student was doing everything right. She was standing at her bus stop, waiting for her ride, minding her business. That’s when a driver, apparently convinced that braking was optional, veered around a stopped school bus to avoid rear-ending it.
The car didn’t miss the girl entirely — it struck the heavy backpack she was wearing, sending her to the hospital.
The Backpack That Deserves Its Own Trophy
Here’s where the story takes a turn that textbook manufacturers everywhere should find deeply satisfying: all those heavy books actually did something useful for once. The bulky backpack absorbed enough of the impact to prevent what could have been catastrophic injuries. The girl walked away with a scraped chin and soft tissue damage to her back. The driver’s side door, meanwhile, was left with a very telling dent…