Driver Who Hit Kids: I Didn't Know It Was a School Bus

The 24-year-old driver who struck and killed three young siblings crossing a rural Indiana road to their school bus told police that she saw flashing lights but didn't realize they were from a stopped school bus until it was too late, reports ABC News. The Tuesday crash occurred before sunrise, and Alyssa Shepherd said she saw the lights in the distance as she approached but didn't see that a bus had stopped on the two-lane highway until the three children were in front of her pickup. The speed limit on the road is 55mph, though police have not said how fast Shepherd was going.

Another jarring detail: Shepherd had three children in the backseat of her truck when the fatality occurred. She faces reckless homicide and other charges. In another development, the school district in which the crash occurred is moving the bus stop, reports the Indianapolis Star. Even before Tuesday's accident, parents had complained about how dangerous it was to have kids cross a busy state road. "It took three kids' lives to get them to do that after complaining for three years," says the uncle of the three who were killed. (He also says 9-year-old Alivia Stahl appeared to try to shield her twin brothers, Xzavier and Mason, both 6.)