Mother arrested after son was hit by school bus

By Paul Takahashi

Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 | 7:35 p.m.

Metro Police arrested a local mother on child neglect charges after her unsupervised son was hit by a school bus on Monday.

Kimberly Marie Russi, 31, of Las Vegas, was charged with two counts of child neglect, one with substantial bodily harm, for leaving her two sons routinely unsupervised at a school bus stop.

Officers were called about 6:40 a.m. to a school bus stop near the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard North and Walnut Road, near Nellis Air Force Base, to investigate a traffic accident involving a Clark County school bus and a 6-year-old boy.

Upon investigation, traffic officers found the boy and his slightly older brother were left unsupervised while they waited at the bus stop. As the school bus arrived, the younger boy darted onto the road, and the approaching bus ran over the boy's right foot, police said.

The boy was transported to University Medical Center's Trauma Center, where he was treated for "substantial but nonlife-threatening" injuries, police said.

The bus driver was not at fault in this accident, police said. The bus was not the one the boy normally rides, police added.

Russi, who also goes by Kimberly Dela Cruz, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center with bail set at $20,000.