Poorly maintained bus stop concerns Raeford mom

RAEFORD, NC (WTVD) -- A Raeford mother is concerned about her children's bus stop.

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Elementary students are picked up in the neighborhood while high school students are forced to wait in an overgrown grassy culvert close to Galatia Church Road.

Crystal Sanders doesn't think it's fair but she also doesn't think it's safe.

"First of all, these cars fly more than 55 mph," Sanders said.

Sanders has two high-schoolers in Hoke County Schools. They are old enough to look after themselves but it's the drivers she doesn't trust.

"They are teenaged kids, they don't pay attention just like elementary students, these cars fly up and down these roads ... and they are going to get hit," Sanders said.

The mother of two doesn't want her children to go through what she did as a child.

"I was 13, we were crossing the street in front of the school and my brother got hit by a minivan," she said.

Aside from the traffic concerns, Sanders said the bus stop isn't well maintained. Lined with thick brush and 3-foot-tall bushes, it forces students to walk through or stand close to the busy Galatia Church Road.

"I'm not originally from North Carolina, but I am deathly afraid of snakes; I don't know what snakes are in there, ticks, you don't know what's over here," Sanders said.

Hoke County Schools said that the bus-stop placement is in compliance with the state and federal laws. However, the property owners have failed to maintain the lawn, HCS said, which forces children to stand close to the road.

The bus stop was designed so that students stand close to a fence about 15 feet from the street.

Hoke Schools said that moving the stop could place it out of compliance and make it even less safe for students.