The parents of a former Mt. Pleasant Area School district kindergarten student claim their daughter was injured and received improper medical care during a bus ride home from classes more than a decade ago.

According to a two-count lawsuit filed this month in Westmoreland County court against First Student Inc., the company that previously provided transportation services for the district, the girl, then 5, was launched from her seat after the driver suddenly braked in an effort to stop disruptive behavior during a ride home on Oct. 1, 2009.

“(The child) was helpless to the forces of inertia and was sent flying off her seat to the floor and into the metal bracket of the partition in front of her,” attorney Vincent J. Barbara of Somerset County wrote in the lawsuit.

The court filing claims the driver eventually stopped the bus and found the child on the floor, bleeding from the head, and gave her a paper rag to hold against the wound before continuing on with the route.

The child’s grandfather greeted her at the bus stop and found blood on her dress and socks as she held the rag against her head, the lawsuit contends.

The suit alleges the child was blinded in her left eye, sustained a concussion, head and facial lacerations and suffered a brain injury. It alleges First Student was negligent in the training of its driver and failed to have cameras on the vehicle to monitor behavior. It also claims the company’s driver, who was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, was not sufficiently trained to provide first aid to student passengers.

The girl’s family is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

Representatives from First Student, which was replaced as Mt. Pleasant’s school bus provider in 2019, did not respond to a request for comment.

Barbara confirmed the lawsuit stems from an incident that occurred years earlier but said the filing falls within the state’s statute of limitations. Barbara declined further comment on the case.

Greensburg lawyer Larry Kerr said the statute used by Barbara to file the lawsuit is well established Pennsylvania law.

“It says that injuries to a minor, if a person was under 18 at the time, and means the last day to file a lawsuit is two years after the child’s 18th birthday,” Kerr said.

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