A girl crossing Nostrand Avenue was pinned down by a "runaway" school bus in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon. Second grader Amber Sadiq had been walking home with her 10 year old brother when an empty bus rolled down the street. The bus weighed 26,000 pounds, and witnesses tried to push the bus off Sadiq without luck. When police arrived, they asked a nearby Con Ed truck to help pull the bus off Sadiq. Sadiq's brother, Umar, who was able to dodge the bus, cried, "I was right there with her. It was terrible. Someone picked me up and carried me home." One witness said Sadiq tried to run "but the garbage can was in the way."
An 8 year old boy entered the bus after the driver left and somehow managed to released the brakes; the boy entered through the back emergency exit and then got off the bus once it started to roll. The bus driver had locked the front door to go eat across the street (the emergency exit doors do not lock). And the 8 year old boy was charged with negligent homicide this morning.
