In a bid to ensure the safety of children as they travel to and from school, the Georgia legislative session is considering a new bill sparked by a recent tragedy. Named "Addy's Law," SB 492 aims to prevent students from having to cross dangerous streets just to catch their school bus. The legislation is in response to the heartbreaking loss of 8-year-old Adalynn Pierce, who was struck by a car while crossing the street to board her school bus in Henry County. According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the proposed measure strictly requires school bus stops to be located on the same side of the road as the school bus entrance.
Adalynn's family, still deeply grieving, is actively pushing for this change. State Sen. Rick Williams quickly took up their cause, drafting SB 492 with an eye to swiftly bring it before the current legislative session. "I got with the legislative counsel here at the capitol and said, 'we've got to address this issue. We've got to make sure that we don't lose another child getting on a school bus,'" Williams told FOX 5 Atlanta. The bill's implementation would require major rerouting efforts from school districts, despite the ongoing bus driver shortage—a hurdle that Williams acknowledges yet believes to be surmountable.
The law's namesake lost her life in a heart-wrenching accident, which saw a driver illegally bypass the stopped bus, leading to the fatal incident. Adalynn's legacy, however, extends beyond her tragic end. Posthumously, she became an organ and tissue donor, consequently saving and improving countless lives—a fact her relative, Butts County Sheriff Gary Long, finds solace in. "After her death, eight people continued in life because of her organs. Seventy-five because of her tissue and her blood type was so rare, that hundreds of kids with cancer are benefiting today. And now she is literally changing laws in the State of Georgia," Long stated in an interview obtained by FOX 5 Atlanta.
Support for Addy's Law has spread quickly, with a petition started by Adalynn's sisters rallying over 18,000 signatures. Sheriff Long emphasized the breadth of the young girl's impact, saying to 11Alive, "Even in her passing, she's still impacting lives." With backing from both the community and state representatives, Sen. Williams is confident that the bill will pass during this session and will prevent future tragedies of this nature from unfolding. "We're trying to get a hearing on it now through committee. We've got time to quickly get it through committee. So that then we can make crossover days so that this bill would go over to the House and it could be debated and even try to get it on through the House and get it to the governor's desk," Williams said.
