RUMFORD, Maine —
A 6-year-old boy riding his bike next to a school bus died Wednesday after being run over by the bus when he fell.
Police in Rumford, Maine, said Jayce Holt was riding his bike when he went off the sidewalk and into a crosswalk at an intersection.
Holt did not recognize the bus was turning left until it was too late, police said, and the boy did not have time to stop his bicycle.
“By the time he noticed that the bus had turned, tried braking, fell off his bicycle… the bus, unfortunately, ran over him with their rear wheels,” Rumford Police Chief Stacy Carter said.
A makeshift memorial with flowers, teddy bears and balloons formed feet from where the accident happened.
The first grader loved to collect Pokemon cards.
“If I could, I’d probably go back in time and try helping him,” said Damien Amburg, one of Jayce’s friends.
Meghan Beale lives across the street from where the accident happened and heard Holt’s mother screaming.
“His mother asked me, like, when I got to him, she asked me, she goes, ‘Do you know CPR?’ I had to look at her and go, ‘No, honey. I do know CPR, but there’s nothing I could do to help revive your son. He’s already gone.'”
Police said the bus driver is cooperating and blood and alcohol tests have been performed, which is standard procedure. Four students were on the bus at the time of the accident.
An accident reconstruction team examined the bus, and the superintendent of Regional School Unit 10 said there were no mechanical issues.
The crash remains under investigation by the Rumford Police Department and Maine State Police, but Carter said it appears to have been a tragic accident.
A GoFundMe campaign has been created to help pay for Jayce’s funeral expenses.
