The Hollister School District’s superintendent underscored helmet safety following Monday’s fatal accident near Sunnyslope Elementary School and the local skate park.
“He was a student in our district,” said Gary McIntire, the superintendent of the Hollister School District. Staff remembered him as “always smiling,” and a “very pleasant and very happy young man,” he said.
Joshua Rodriguez, 11, was killed Monday when a county transit bus struck his bicycle at a Hollister intersection. He had been a student at Marguerite Maze Middle School and before that Ladd Lane School, the superintendent said.
“I don’t know any of the details of the accident but I think it is a good time for us as a school district to be thinking about how we can reinforce with all our students that they do wear helmets,” McIntire said.
The Hollister Police Department has yet to confirm if Rodriguez was using a helmet when hit. Police Chief David Westrick said in an email that it was too early to comment on the victim’s helmet status at the time of the accident.
“There’s a heck of a lot of traffic in front of all of our schools,” McIntire said. “That’s very, very typical of all of our schools so I don’t know that Sunnyslope stands out in that way.”
The district employs crossing guards and has staff members monitor parking lots to help keep students safe during the school year, McIntire said. School resource officers—the district will likely have two in the fall—also help control traffic, he said.
The idea of teaching bicycle safety is transitioning into teaching “good safety around traffic,” which instructs pedestrians in safety skills, too, McIntire said. The number of students riding bikes to school has decreased, enough that the district has considered removing bicycle racks from certain campuses, the superintendent said.
“This is really a tragic event and we’re very, very saddened to hear about it,” he said.
McIntire commended the community for stepping forward to help those in need and called it an “admirable trait of our community that people will support others in times of need.” To learn more about how to help the family, go here: http://bit.ly/1D6BPGY.
