PLAINFIELD — Moments after she walked off the school bus Friday afternoon, a 9-year-old girl was killed after she was dragged then struck by the vehicle, police said.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the girl, who was not named, “was not fully clear from the bus when the door closed,” according to Massachusetts State Police.
At about 4 p.m., at a bus stop on South Central Street, the girl became caught in the door as the driver, who also has not yet been identified, pulled away, police said. She was dragged a short distance before she was struck by the bus, and the driver stopped after the girl was hit, police said. Police said the 9-year-old was a student at an area school — though they have not said which — and that several other children were on the bus at the time she was struck.
The male bus driver is being interviewed by state police detectives working with the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office. It was not immediately known whether the driver would be facing charges.
Authorities established a roughly half-mile perimeter near the scene of the incident, at the intersection of South Central and East Main streets. Plainfield Police Chief Stacey Hudson told a reporter around 6 p.m. at the scene that no further information was available and referred all questions to the district attorney’s office.
As of 8 p.m. Friday, the accident was still being processed by the state police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Team, police said. The state police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section is also a part of the investigation.