RALEIGH -- A District Court judge ordered an 84-year-old Raleigh woman to pay $500 and surrender her driver's license for one year as punishment for hitting and killing a 6-year-old girl at a bus stop this summer.
Geraldine Deitz was found guilty of misdemeanor death by vehicle and passing a stopped school bus. She must also pay $130 in court costs and undergo a medical review before getting a new license, Assistant District Attorney Mark Stevens said. She will serve 18 months of unsupervised probation; a 45-day jail sentence was suspended.
Ashley Ramos-Hernandez was a student at Green Elementary. She died in August after stepping off a school bus and getting hit by a sport utility vehicle driven by Deitz, police said. Her death heightened concerns about the safety of North Hills Drive - a wide, hilly, winding road with a 35 mph speed limit that residents say drivers rarely obey.
Witnesses at the scene reported that the lights and safety equipment of the bus were working. Stevens said Deitz' car passing the bus was "inexplicable."
"No punishment that the court could give out is adequate for the amount of pain and suffering this family has endured," he said. "It's a tragedy for all the parties involved."
In court Thursday, Ashley's mother, Elena Hernandez-Garcia, read a long and tearful statement in Spanish, read again in English by a court translator, calling for tougher sentences in fatal traffic cases involving school buses. Raleigh attorney Bill Bystrynski, representing the family, said he is investigating the possibility of a civil case.
"Ashley was a girl with many dreams and hopes," Hernandez-Garcia said. "She was very happy, fun, respectful and helpful, a good daughter, excellent friend, and companion.
"My daughter had so many dreams, and they were taken away in an instant. Ashley did not deserve to die that way, run over by a person who did not respect the bus."
Deitz pleaded not guilty, but she did not contest the charges in court or offer evidence. Money from the fine goes to the Wake County school board.
