By Philip Rucker and Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 7, 2007

About a dozen children, accompanied by several parents and school administrators, returned to their La Plata bus stop yesterday, a day after a motorist struck several children and drove off before being halted.

As they waited in the quiet Charles County neighborhood, the parents said safety measures should increase at the school bus stop. They said they will start a petition drive to ask officials to install speed bumps, hire a crossing guard and move the bus stop in the 6700 block of Glen Albin Road to a less busy spot nearby.

"I was so scared to come up here this morning," said Stephanie Wines, mother of David, 6, a kindergartner. "He saw [the accident], and I don't think it affected him until last night. He hasn't seen anything like this before in his life."

The incident seriously injured two boys, ages 4 and 10, both of whom remained at Children's Hospital in the District yesterday.

The driver, Jacqueline E. Simmons, 29, of King George, Va., made her first court appearance yesterday in La Plata. She is charged with driving while impaired by a controlled substance and failure to stop after an accident with an injury.

District Court Judge Richard A. Cooper set her bond at $50,000. Late yesterday, she was freed after posting it. A trial date was set for Sept. 21.

The incident occurred about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday as children, some of them seated on the curb, waited for their bus. After hitting the children, the driver continued on and ran a stop sign before being halted 20 minutes later, police said. Simmons failed two sobriety tests, police said.

The 10-year-old, who underwent surgery for a broken leg and suffered severe bleeding, was in "extreme pain" yesterday, said Beatrice Darden, his grandmother. The 4-year-old, whose legs were severely injured, was recovering from surgery at the hospital, school officials said. A 9-year-old was treated at a La Plata hospital and released, and a teenager was treated at the scene, authorities said.

Simmons struck the students on her way to a methadone clinic in Waldorf, police said. Police said Simmons told them that she is addicted to drugs.

More details about Simmons's criminal record emerged in the court proceedings. Cooper said Simmons was involved in a hit-and-run accident in South Carolina in 2005. He also said she was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol twice in the past three years.

Transportation officials with the Charles school system said they plan to meet with parents this morning to discuss safety measures at the bus stop, which is just off busy Route 301.

"Safety is one of the things that is looked at whenever they establish a stop, and we constantly look . . . if there's something that can be preventable," system spokeswoman Katie O'Malley-Simpson said. She added that the system routinely goes through safety procedures and teaches children how to be safe at bus stops.

Yesterday's accident was the second at the Glen Albin Road stop this school year. In September, a child was hit by a car while crossing the street.

Cecelia Patterson, who waited yesterday with her daughter BreLaunna, 10, said many drivers exceed the 25 mph limit on Glen Albin.

"It's normally like they think this neighborhood doesn't exist," Patterson said.

Another parent, Darrietta Redding, said the bus could easily pick up students on a quieter street.

"The kids need to stay over there on that side and let the bus go out there to get them," Redding said, pointing to the next street over.

As she entered the courthouse for her hearing, Simmons, dressed in a navy blue jumpsuit and white flip-flops, shielded her face from television cameras.

Cooper rejected a prosecutor's request that Simmons be detained without bond.

"I definitely would not be a flight risk," Simmons told the judge. "I have nowhere else to go."

Simmons's mother, who declined to give her name, told the judge that she would be "the first to admit" that her daughter has problems. "But she's been working hard to get over her addictions," she said.