ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The mother of a 9-year-old boy who was run over by a school bus earlier this year is calling for more safety features on school buses.

What You Need To Know

  • Ultra Marshall lost her son when he was run over by an Orange County school bus earlier this year

  • Marshall and her family are pushing for more safety measures to be installed on school buses

  • In Osceola County, they’re testing radar sensors to detect students around and under the bus

  • Sensor technology still needs state approval

Ultra Marshall says her son, Elyas Amyr Marshall-Rodriguez, was full of energy.

“We had this ritual where he would come home and he would jump in my arms every day after school,” said Marshall.

Sadly, that ritual was cut short on Jan. 16, 2024.

“He just didn’t make it home that day,” she said. “One of the neighbors text me and I went out there and that’s when I saw everything.”

A Florida Highway Patrol investigation found that Elyas crawled under an Orange County school bus to retrieve a football when the bus started to leave his apartment complex. He didn’t survive.

“What I always tell everybody — is it’s the silence,” said Marshall. “Because he was the loudest one in the house. And my other two kids are quiet. And I’m quiet. So it’s like, the silence is deafening.”

Marshall and her family are pushing for more to be done to make school buses safer by starting an online petition.

Already, several school districts have cameras, but in Osceola County, they’re going a step further.

 “I always tell people the undercarriage of the bus is the ultimate blind spot. There’s no way a driver would ever know if a person was underneath the bus,” said Randy Wheeler, director of transportation at Osceola District Schools. “This system has the potential to alert the driver to that.”

Korean based company Smart Radar System, looking to plant roots in Osceola County, reached out to Osceola District Schools after learning of the tragedy in Orange County.

CEO Paul Kim says his company equipped a single Osceola County bus with radar sensors to detect students or pedestrians around the bus.

Four sensors are installed on the outside of the bus: one on the front, two on the side and one underneath the bus.

“Anybody approaching the side or the front, within two feet, the radar will detect it,” said Kim. “If someone crawls (under the bus) and based on the same mechanism, the radar detects it.”

When activated, the sensors will flash lights and an alarm will sound for the bus driver.

“I think of it as a virtual assistant, so to speak,” said Wheeler. “To help the driver keep track of what’s taking place around the bus, while they’re sitting in the seat.”

The bus is also equipped with sensors inside the bus to detect if students are on board, ensuring nobody gets left behind on a bus.

This is just a proof of concept. It still needs approval from the state. Smart Radar System needs to determine a cost before the radar can be installed on Osceola County and other school buses.

Marshall wished the sensors would have been installed on her son’s Orange County bus.

“That would have helped. That would have saved his life. Honestly,” said Marshall.

An Orange County Public Schools spokesperson says they’re keeping a close eye on the effectiveness of the radar technology in Osceola County. In Orange County, half of their fleet is equipped with 360 degree cameras.

“When it comes to keeping children safe, they should do everything possible and make the children safe,” said Marshall. “No matter what.”