Georgetown Woman, 39, Faces Court After Fleeing Scene of Bus Stop Crash

A 39-year-old Georgetown woman accused of striking a 10-year-old girl at a school bus stop and then fleeing is scheduled to appear in Scott County District Court today at 1 p.m. Ashley Parsons faces charges including first-degree assault, operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving, and leaving the scene of an accident after the crash near Valley Forge Court last Thursday.

According to WKYT, officers were dispatched to the scene after being told the vehicle involved in the injury collision had fled. Per the arrest citation, the vehicle struck a 10-year-old girl as she crossed the street to board her school bus. Witnesses told investigators the child was hit “so violently” that the impact knocked her shoes off, and the arrest citation states she was thrown from the front of the bus and landed near the rear tires.

The young victim was a student at Southern Elementary School and was treated at a hospital for a concussion and stitches to her forehead, according to WUKY. Police confirmed she suffered no broken bones or life-threatening injuries. The arrest citation also notes that the vehicle failed to stop at the school bus stop sign before leaving the scene.

How Police Tracked Down the Suspect

Officers located the vehicle at a residence on Dorchester Drive, where it showed visibly new damage to the front of the car, per the arrest citation. Parsons was found inside the home. Georgetown Police identified and located her using community tips and footage recorded by a camera mounted on the school bus itself, as reported by Law&Crime.

During the investigation, officers also learned that a possibly suicidal woman had been driving around in a vehicle similar to the one involved, according to the arrest citation cited by WKYT. Parsons's father, who is the registered owner of the vehicle, confirmed to officers that the damage was new.

What Parsons Told Officers

At the Georgetown Police Department, Parsons admitted to being in the area at the time of the collision and said she remembered seeing the stopped school bus, according to the arrest citation. She reportedly told officers she did not recall what she was doing and said she did not remember seeing a stop sign or striking a child. She also admitted to an officer that she had driven while intoxicated, per the citation.

New State Law Adds Extra Charge

In addition to her initial four charges, Parsons was formally charged with illegally passing a loading or unloading school bus with its stop arm extended, according to WUKY. That charge stems from Kentucky House Bill 7, a traffic safety law that took effect on July 15, just over a month before the crash, as reported by LEX18.

House Bill 7 updated Kentucky Revised Statute 189.370 to require drivers traveling in both directions on any highway to stop for a school bus with flashing lights and an extended stop arm, unless the roadway is separated by an elevated barrier or unpaved median, according to the Legislative Research Commission. The law also authorized Kentucky school districts to install exterior stop-arm camera monitoring systems on buses and established a $300 civil penalty for first-offense stop-arm violations, per Glasgow News 1.

Under the new law, if a driver illegally passes a stopped school bus and cannot be immediately identified, Kentucky creates a rebuttable presumption that the registered owner or lessee of the vehicle was the one driving at the time of the offense, according to Marshall County Schools.

Potential Sentencing Exposure

First-degree assault under KRS 508.010 is classified as a Class B felony in Kentucky, carrying a potential prison sentence of 10 to 20 years upon conviction, according to Landon Law. That charge applies when conduct manifests extreme indifference to human life and creates a grave risk of death. Separately, under Kentucky Revised Statute 189A.010, an aggravated DUI conviction automatically doubles the mandatory minimum jail sentence otherwise required for driving under the influence, per the O'Neal Law Office.

The Georgetown case lands amid a broader national problem with drivers ignoring stopped school buses. The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services estimated that drivers illegally pass stopped school buses 38.4 million times during the 2025–2026 school year across the United States. The Kentucky Department of Education has issued safety reminders to promote back-to-school traffic safety.

Parsons is scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. today in Scott County District Court.