CLARK COUNTY — People in a Clark County community are remembering students involved in a deadly bus crash two years ago.
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Support continues for the student who died as a result of the crash and the 20 other students who were hurt.
“It was actually my first day on the job, school nurse at our junior, senior high school,” Eryn Smith said. “So I was one of the first responders that day.
Smith was one of the first people News Center 7 saw laying flowers at the crash site memorial on Friday.
“It’s been very impactful over the last couple of years because the family that lost their sweet son on that day is so special to us,” she said.
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The tragedy prompted a change in Ohio.
Gov. Mike DeWine formed a school bus safety task force, which came up with recommendations for safety features for school buses.
And language in the new state budget signed into law this summer set aside $10 million to start to fund a needs-based program.
Districts can apply for grants as they see fit and use the money to pay for school bus safety features.
Smith and many others placed flowers at the crash site memorial Friday after a public Facebook post from the sister of Aiden Clark, Madelyn.
It said in part, “Please help us, the Clark family, in remembering this day we now like to call Aiden’s Day, and sit out your favorite flowers and stay for a moment of silence.”
Support still pulses in the prayers from the community.
“My prayer first and foremost was that God put me right where I was supposed to be,” Smith said. “Right next to that, I’m just asking him to wrap his arms around this community, and most definitely the family as they continue to grieve the loss of their sweet son.”
State Rep. Bernie Willis, who lives in the Northwestern Local Schools district, has a bill that would also create stiffer penalties, including higher fines, for drivers who pass school buses while they’re loading or unloading children.
Willis said the plan is to add money from those fines into the grant fund.
The bill is in the Ohio Senate after it passed the Ohio House in June.
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