Utah man jumps in to help after 12-year-old is struck by school bus

ROY, Utah – A neighbor jumped in to help after a school bus hit a 12-year-old boy on his bicycle.

“I really had a feeling that’s what was going to happen,” Roy resident Cliff Jackson said.

It’s the last thing you would want to see. But it’s something Jackson had to watch.

“I heard kind of an odd whizz behind my head. I turned and saw it was a boy riding his bike down the street going really fast,” Jackson said.

Jackson lives in the house adjacent to the intersection of 2500 West and 5175 South, where the accident took place.

“I thought ‘that’s not good,’” he added.

Jackson was in his driveway Friday afternoon, packing up the car for a neighborhood camp-out.

“I turned back around to continue doing my thing and then I heard a collision,” Jackson said.

It was the sound of a school bus colliding with a 12-year-old boy on a bicycle.

“I didn’t really think, instinct kind of kicked in, I dropped what I was doing and ran down there,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the boy was unconscious when he got to him.

“What went through my head, my mind, honestly just a lot of prayers,” Jackson said. “It was a hectic scene, there were children on the bus looking out the window, seeing what was going on.”

Parents of the children on the bus were notified and a second school bus came to pick them up and finish the route.

If you look at that particular intersection, the boy would have been riding down a steep hill – he had a stop sign. The bus didn’t.

“Kids on bikes, longboards, scooters, just go hauling kind of nonchalantly down this road and they don’t stop at this stop sign,” Jackson said.

“This is a heavy residential area, I don’t know if there’s any more heavy bike or pedestrian traffic of similar make up here in the Roy area,” said Roy City Police Department Master Officer Stuart Hackworth.

Roy police said the high traffic in the area makes safety even more important, especially now that school’s back in session.

“With the increased traffic of students walking and people getting their kids to and from home, it’s crucially important to make sure that you watch what’s going on,” Hackworth said.

Jackson claimed the boy was not wearing a helmet. Police have not confirmed that but did say he suffered head injuries.

The boy was taken to a local hospital and then airlifted to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

At last report Friday night, the boy was still in critical condition and undergoing surgery.

“My heart and soul just goes to prayers for this boy and his family, the bus driver all of those who may be affected emotionally, physically, by the accident,” Jackson said. “Things can happen in the blink of an eye, and your whole life changes.”

This article was originally published by fellow CNN affiliate KSTU. It is used here with permission.