WBTV is on your side tonight with a safety tip for parents looking to keep their kids safe at bus stops after Olympic High School student Zoe Deen was hit by a car and killed while trying to catch the bus along a busy street in southwest Charlotte Tuesday morning.
According to police Zoe was not wearing any reflective clothing and the street was not lit with street lights.
WBTV learned Wednesday that administrators at Tuttle Elementary School in Catawba County have been providing reflective tape for students to place on their bookbags while standing at the bus stop.
"It's a safety issue. If a car's light bounces off it and they're paying attention and they see it, hey, they see my kid," parent Jason Lambert said.
Lambert has four children of his own and two of them have to catch the school bus before 7 a.m.
"My kids are very important to me. They keep me going," Lambert said.
A WBTV reporter drove around the neighborhood near the bus stop where Deen was killed. After the sunset, it was clear just how dark the streets can become.
However, with the reflective tape or reflective material placed on some of the students, it's clear figures are moving in the darkness.
"It looks like it's glowing like a glow stick," student Nitara Lambert said.
The principal at Tuttle Elementary tells us that some school bus drivers in the county have had trouble spotting some students in the darkness and this year county officials decided it would be okay to offer the reflective tape to students.
"When there's that movement to be able to see and recognize that that's a student coming toward you then that just helps the bus driver out. From a safety standpoint. I think it's a great idea," said Mitzi Story, the principal at Tuttle Elementary School.
Students Shiloh and Nitara Lambert both agree.
"I like how I want to be safe and they want to make me safe and I like how cars can see me," Nitara said.
The story said she would recommend the reflective tape to other local schools.
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