A 12-year-old boy who missed his school bus was critically injured early Friday when he chased it and fell under a wheel.
The accident happened about 8:50 a.m. on the West Hampden Avenue Frontage Road near South Depew Street, near the Tall Pines residential complex, said Lt. Matt Murray, a Denver Police Department spokesman.
The boy, a Westgate Elementary School student, was taken to Swedish Medical Center.
The hospital identified him as Diego Lemos. The fifth-grader underwent surgery Friday morning for serious injuries to his leg and hip.
Lemos attends school in Jefferson County, but the accident happened in Denver.
Tammy Petersen, 36, had just sent her son, Jacob, 12, to the bus stop when she heard the bus brake hard, followed by screams, she said.
Petersen bolted toward the bus, which had turned a corner, and she saw a neighborhood boy she knew coming toward her.
“Was it Jacob? Was it Jacob?” she asked.
“No, it was Diego,” the boy responded.
Petersen said that when she reached the injured boy, who was lying on his stomach, “he looked up at me and said, ‘Is it bad?’ “
She told him, “No, you’re going to be OK.”
Petersen said she comforted the boy and told him his parents would be with him shortly.
Students on the bus, including her son, told Petersen that Diego had chased the bus after he missed it at the stop. He was pounding on the back of the bus when he fell under the rear-wheel section.
“It felt like the bus went over something,” Jacob Petersen recalled, as he waved his hand in an arching motion to demonstrate a bump.
It’s unclear whether the 56-year-old driver, who has been with the district for three years, knew that the boy was chasing the bus. The driver was not identified.
If drivers realize a student has missed the bus, they’re trained to stop and let the student get on, said Jan Clopton, executive director of transportation for the district. “It’s always safety first,” Clopton said.
Clopton said the driver was shaken by the accident, which remains under investigation. It has not been determined whether the driver faces any charges, Murray said.
More than 20 students who were on the bus at the time were transferred to another bus and taken to school, where counselors were available to talk with them about the accident.
The Lemos family released a statement thanking West Metro Fire Protection District and Denver Fire Department paramedics and others.
“We also thank the community and school for their thoughts and prayers,” the statement said.
The family asked for “privacy” so it can “focus on Diego and his recovery.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
