Parents of 9-year-old killed by bus say Disney bus driver was at fault

The parents of the boy killed by a Disney bus Thursday say Walt Disney World is to blame for the accident.

Chase Brubaker, 9, of Redington Beach, was riding his bicycle with a friend Thursday when he was killed by the bus on the park’s camping grounds, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report. But the boy’s mother, said the 11-year-old friend swore Chase was cautious and never left the sidewalk.

“The first thing she said was, ‘Kelly, we were on the sidewalk,'” Kelly Brubaker said outside her home Friday morning. “He did not run into that bus.”

Brubaker pointed to the boy’s little blue bike, which she and her husband brought home. It appeared to be in good condition, with only the right brake bent.

The Florida Highway Patrol said the children and the bus were southbound on Big Bend Drive in the Fort Wilderness Resort area when Brubaker apparently tried to look back, then drifted off the sidewalk and hit the middle of the bus.

He was knocked off his bike and pulled under the right rear tire, troopers said.

Florida Highway Patrol’s Sgt. Kim Montes said she understands the family’s grief, being a mother herself. The investigation is ongoing, but based on what she knew, she did not believe the bus veered into the boy.

“If we didn’t have the physical evidence or witness statements that we had, we wouldn’t make such a statement,” she said.

Both Brubaker and the 11-year-old girl were wearing helmets. She was uninjured. There were 28 people on the bus.

Bus driver David Rich, 56, has worked for Disney for 30 years. Charges are pending, Montes said, but pending charges are typically routine in fatal accidents.

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