The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction issued a reminder to the motoring public to exhibit additional caution when coming upon a stopped school bus after a 6-year-old girl was struck and killed last week after disembarking from her Wake County school bus.

The 83-year-old woman accused of killing Ashley Ramos-Ramirez, a first-grader at Green Year Round Elementary, said she neither saw the stop arm extended from the school bus nor the flashing red lights as it was unloading students on the afternoon of Aug. 20. In a statement, State Superintendent June Atkinson said Ramos-Ramirez's death and the return to school of 1.4 million students, half of which ride the school bus, serves as a reminder to motorists to be vigilant as school buses stop to pick up or drop off students.

Since 1998, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Transportation Services Section has conducted a one-day count of stop arm violations in coordination with district transportation departments across the state. The most recent count was conducted on March 12, when 2,325 stop-arm violations were reported by 13,830 school bus drivers. Violations most often occurred in the afternoon (1,309), at the front of the bus (1,706), on the left side of the bus (2,183), on two-lane roads (1,372), and by passenger cars (1,611). Another 104 violations occurred because motorists passed the bus on the right side where students load and unload.

Earlier this summer, the state legislature passed a bill effective Dec. 1, 2009, that will charge a driver with a Class H felony if their strike and kill a person when illegally passing a stopped school bus.