A seven-year-old boy has been killed while crossing the road to get on a school bus.
Brandon Kruggel was on a street northwest of Millarville, Alberta when he was struck. He was a Grade 2 student at Millarville Community School.
A bus was picking up three students Tuesday morning when a southbound 2008 Toyota Highlander passed the bus and hit Kruggel.
Both the child and the vehicle ended up in the ditch.
The female bus driver tried to administer first aid to the young boy but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 17-year-old male driver of the vehicle was not injured in the collision.
CTV has learned the driver had also been a student at Millarville Community School and he was driving with his brother at the time of the crash.
The Kruggel family is new to the Millarville area.
Police say drugs and alcohol are not factors in the crash and the road was snow-covered at the time. It is believed the bus had its warning lights on at the time.
"Unfortunately, there were other children on the bus," says RCMP SGT. Patrick Webb. "They were safe but they did see some of the circumstances of the collision, so that certainly impacts on them."
Victim services is involved at the school to help the bus driver and the boy's classmates deal with the tragedy.
The investigation is continuing. Possible charges include failing to stop for a school bus and criminal negligence.
It's the third fatal crash involving a school bus in Alberta in the last 18 months.
Last April, a gravel truck crashed into the rear of a school bus on a fog-shrouded highway near Rimbey in central Alberta. A 17-year-old girl was killed and a teenage boy was seriously injured.
In October 2007, an eight-year-old girl died after the bus she was in side-swiped an abandoned dump truck at high speed on a Calgary freeway. The bus then smashed into a light standard.
