By Andrew Carswell
That morning started out like any other. 16-year-old Alondra Martinez, a bright, intelligent student at Atlantic Coast High School in Jacksonville, was walking to her bus stop, on her way to school.
She was working part-time at Chik-fil-A, and saving up for a VW Beetle. She enjoyed attending church, was an animal lover, and of course, like any teenager, she loved her phone.
Alondra never made it school that day.
She didn’t even make it to the bus stop, and it wasn’t because she was skipping, or sick.
Alondra was hit and killed on her way to the bus stop on the morning of January 17, 2025. Instead of calling 911 and waiting with her, he placed Alondra in his vehicle, and drove her to the a medical facility, himself, where she later died.
Her sister, Alejandra Martinez, wishes that he wouldn’t have.
“I wish he would have just called 911…” she said in a recent interview. While the driver was well intentioned, many have wondered what would have happened if he had called 911. Would Alondra have survived?
Unfortunately, her case is just one of many.
We are just weeks into 2025, but several students have been hit at Florida bus stops, already this year. On 1/10/25,14-year-old Maslin Mooney narrowly escaped death when he was hit by a car in St. John’s County, as he was on his way to Gamble Rogers Middle School.
Both of his legs were broken, as well as his wrist, several teeth, and he also suffered a brain injury.
The driver in this case kept on driving, leaving Maslin for dead on the side of a road in Flagler Estates, until he was found by someone else who was driving by.
Andrew Phillip Robinson, 46, was arrested for hitting Maslin, and is being held on a felony charge of leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury, with a bond set at $100,000.
On 1/8/25, a 7th grader on her way to Fruit Cove Middle school was also hit by a car, and severely injured. The student’s name has not been released.
So, how did we get here, and what do we do ? For starters, there are absolutely no laws on the books in Florida protecting children at bus stops. None.
There is a law requiring drivers to stop for actual school busses, but no protection for students before or after they get dropped off.
Coupled with the fact that it is pitch black dark outside when many of these students are on their way to school, it is a recipe for disaster.
Our kids are in danger, but what do we do to protect them? How can we feel safe sending our children to school, knowing that there is a chance they might not ever make it there alive ?
Enacting bus stop laws would be a sensible place to start. Measures like required lighting, harsher penalties for violations, surveillance cameras and clear signage, would all do much in the way of protecting our local students.
Memorials, editorials, condolences and fundraisers won’t be enough. We have to actually do something about it, so that it stops, and our children are safe.