A MOTHER IN Northern Ireland whose daughter died when she was hit by a car after getting off her school bus is campaigning for new laws around bus-related road safety.

Caitlin-Rose McMullan died in March at the age of 11. She was travelling home on her school bus and had just gotten off the bus when she was fatally knocked down.

Her mother Stella McMullan is campaigning for the government in Stormont to introduce measures to make bus journeys safer for passengers, especially for children.

Speaking to The Journal, Stella said she is calling for laws against traffic overtaking buses while they are stopped.

She would also like to see amber flashing lights that are currently on the back of buses changed to red flashing lights to signal to following traffic to stop behind the bus.

“I’ve also called for bus education to be brought into primary schools. There’s bicycle classes and other different classes but there’s no bus safety classes,” Stella said.

She said students should be educated in schools about “how to board a bus, how to sit down, how to get off the bus, knowing not to be on the phone, knowing not to have earphones on, knowing to stand somewhere safe on a footpath or in a bus shelter until the bus takes off and you’ve got a clear vision of the road”.

Tributes paid to Caitlin-Rose McMullan after she was knocked down in March.

Stella met yesterday with Northern Ireland’s Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins along with Sinn Féin MP for Mid-Ulster Cathal Mallaghan and Mid-Ulster District councillor Ian Milne.

She said the minister was very receptive to her proposals and that politicians from across the political spectrum have supported her campaign, and that they expressed it was “so sad that it took you coming here after burying your daughter” for change to start to be made.

“I’m not getting my daughter back but I’m here to save other kids,” Stella said.

Stella McMullan with Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins, Sinn Fein Mid Ulster MP Cathal Mallaghan and Mid Ulster District councillor Ian Milne after a meeting yesterday. Patricia Devlin Patricia Devlin

Several other countries, including the United States and Canada, have laws about traffic flow at bus stops that require other vehicles to stop behind school buses and wait rather than overtaking.

An Opposition motion was brought to Stormont yesterday seeking a law on improving road safety at school bus stops, including preventing other traffic from overtaking stopped buses, and Kimmins has committed to introducing legislation on the matter.

In the meantime, Stella would like to see policymakers move quickly to take any other possible measures to make roads safer around bus stops. 

“At the back of a bus, you’ve got advertising [for businesses] – that shouldn’t be the case. It should be signs about children’s safety on buses,” she said.

Parents have to make their children aware and drivers need to be aware,” she said.

“Some drivers don’t have patience, but if they were burying their daughter, it’d be a different story.”