School Bus Left Injured Girl, Suit Says Parents Sue School District 81, Ambulance Firm, Bus Company

A north Spokane couple has filed a lawsuit claiming a school bus driver left their 10-year-old daughter at a bus stop after she broke her hip.

Caitlin McGinty, who slipped on gravel and fell while waiting for the school bus last year, ended up in a body cast with pins in her left hip.

Ambulance workers who arrived at the bus stop also left without transporting the girl, according to the lawsuit filed May 16 in Spokane County Superior Court.

“She said she thought she was going to die there all alone,” said her mother, Cathy McGinty.

Named as defendants are Spokane School District 81 and Superintendent Gary Livingston; the unnamed bus driver; Spokane Ambulance; and Laidlaw Transit/Mayflower Contract Service.

District 81 officials referred questions to security director Joe Madsen, who refused to comment.

But Laidlaw and Spokane Ambulance workers disputed the lawsuit’s version of what happened.

The bus driver didn’t realize Caitlin was injured and the girl also said her father was on his way, said Kevin Mest, Laidlaw’s Northwest operations director.

Spokane Ambulance spokesman Mike Lopez said medical workers recommended the girl be seen by an emergency department doctor.

They also offered to transport her, but her father, who had arrived at the bus stop, said he’d rather drive her himself, Lopez said. “That service was refused.”

Caitlin fell last May while chasing a ball at Sinto and Adams, where a group of children were waiting for a bus bound for Holmes Elementary School.

Someone helped Caitlin to the curb and her older brother, Will, ran home to get their father, said Cathy McGinty, who teaches anger management classes at West Central Community Center.

In the meantime, the bus arrived. According to the suit, Caitlin was lying in the gutter, unable to board the bus.

The bus driver radioed her dispatcher, then asked Caitlin if anyone was on their way to help her, the claim said. The girl replied, “I think.”

Cathy McGinty said her husband, Michael, arrived after the bus left. An ambulance, summoned by a neighbor, also arrived.

Paramedics didn’t want to take the girl to a hospital because they didn’t believe she’d broken any bones, McGinty said.

Michael McGinty then drove his daughter to Rockwood Clinic and, by evening, she was undergoing a five-hour surgery. She still has three pins in her left hip, Cathy McGinty said.

In their lawsuit, the McGintys asked for a ruling of negligence, the infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract by Laidlaw and Spokane Ambulance. The suit also requests money damages for those charges and reimbursement of attorney fees.

Laidlaw is investigating the incident, but Mest said it appears the bus driver didn’t violate company policy.

“We make the stop and if we have a child who doesn’t want to get on the bus for any reason, the bus continues on.”

Caitlin, now 11, will undergo surgery next month to remove the pins from her hip.

, DataTimes