SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Earlier this week and again Friday morning, Jackye Anderson watched a young student dart through the crosswalk to be picked up for school in the city of Sheboygan.
The bus did not have its stop sign out or red flashing lights on.
Moments later, she says several cars went “zooming past.”
“My whole body started to shake,” Jackye said.
The scene brought her back nearly 30 years — flashbacks of the moment her life changed forever.
"That little girl was just as little as my little brother when she ran out. And she didn't look for cars. She doesn't know."
On Oct. 9, 1997, Jackye's 6-year-old brother, Jesse, was hit and killed by a car while crossing Highway 42 to their home.
A week before the accident, she said her mom’s intuition told her to sit her kids down for an important conversation.
“She told us, ‘When you get off that school bus and that bus driver tells you to go, you cross that street as fast as you can,’” Anderson recalled. “She told us to run like heck, and he did. He did what he was told to do.”
Watch: Woman wants to keep others safe after brother killed getting off school bus
“It just didn’t end the way we expected it to.”
A cross still sits on the side of the highway, parallel to the spot on the road where Jesse was thrown.
7-year-old Jackye was just inches away from where her brother was struck.
"My life changed as I knew it. From that moment, I panicked…I was a mess."
So when Jackye saw that little girl who reminded her so much of Jesse, she knew she had to speak up.
"I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Are we not going to take this seriously?’"
I brought her concerns to Prigge’s School Bus Services, the company that drives the Sheboygan route.
The big question was, why wasn’t there a stop sign or red flashers?
"By rule, and by law, we are not supposed to use our red lights in the cities,” said Jason Boettner, the office manager at Prigge’s.
He’s been driving the buses for over 20 years.
When I stopped by the office, he showed me exactly where the statute is outlined in the transportation handbook.
"Do not use flashing red warning lights where both sides of the road have curb and sidewalk unless required by local ordinance,” it read.
The video Jackye captured shows curbs and a sidewalk present. The bus did, however, turn on the flashing yellow lights.
"That is just a courtesy to say we are pulling off to the side of the road to let kids off on a corner,” Boettner explained.
He said Jackye isn’t the only one with these concerns. It’s a community-wide confusion.
"The importance of the safety of our kids is the top priority. We wanna make sure they are safe when crossing the streets” — a goal he and Jackye share, in memory of Jesse.
“I know he would want to save other children. He didn’t die for no purpose,” she nodded. "I wholeheartedly believe that."
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