PORT ORANGE, Fla. – Students on Tuesday returned to Sugar Mill Elementary School for the first time since a 10-year-old girl was struck and killed by a vehicle that had just dropped off another student.
The family of ShaoLan Kamaly established a GoFundMe to help with a memorial and legal fees. As of Tuesday morning, nearly $9,000 had been raised.
According to Port Orange police, Kamaly was in a crosswalk when she was hit around 7:10 a.m. Friday near the entrance of the school, which is located at 1101 Charles St.
The driver remained at the scene and was cooperating with the investigation, police said.
Port Orange Chief of Police Manuel Marino said the driver was very distraught after the crash.
Marino said they would be pulling data from the vehicle to see how fast it was going, and would also check if any homes in the area had video of the crash that can help with the investigation.
Marino also said they would have more officers in the area through the end of the school year, which is Friday.
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“We’ve looked at some of the data already,” Marino said. “We show three accidents dating back over the last five years (near the school). Two fortunately involved very minor injuries until today. The previous one was in October 2022. That involved the other crosswalk, and you saw that the school took some preventative measures with that crosswalk as a result of that crash.”
Marino said drivers need to be vigilant on the roads.
“As we head into summer, obviously, our kids will be out there in the streets, going to our parks, going to summer camps,” Marino said. “And so it’s just a reminder, a tragic one, but for everyone to be vigilant and just use the utmost safety that they can when their operating roadways, when there potentially could be children.”
Following the crash, a parent started an online petition to require safety changes around all Volusia County Elementary Schools.
News 6 spoke with the child’s family who provided pictures of her and said they want justice. They are supporting the other parents at the school asking for extra crossing guards and Port Orange police presence.
“This was the final straw to the parents, staff, PTA and everything,” said Rae Hill, a Sugar Mill Elementary parent.
Hill started the petition, which already has thousands of signatures.
“The petition is for an officer or cross guard to be put right here at this location,” she said.
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office hires crossing guards, but Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the addition of a crossing guard at a particular location is up to the ‘School Crossing Evaluation Committee’ which is made up of county engineers, residents, school district members and others from the community.
The sheriff said the committee conducts studies and surveys on speed, traffic volume, traffic control devices and other factors before making that decision.
However, police said the accident last week outside of Sugar Mill Elementary happened near the driveway to the school and Chitwood said typically, they don’t have crossing guards at school driveways because there are stop signs.
The sheriff said surveillance video showed the driver likely breaking several rules, and it would have taken a lot more than a crossing guard to prevent it.
“She’s there at 7:08 dropping her kid off. She’s speeding through an intersection. It’s five miles an hour, there’s a stop sign, there’s a stop bar. She chose not to do that,” he said.
The sheriff said drivers need to follow the rules but admitted a new plan is needed to hold them accountable.
“I’m 19 school cross guards short now. Like everybody else, you can’t hire. So now, I think we have to sit down with the PTA, the school administration, with the city and come up with a plan,” he said, “The city’s going to have to take some responsibility, we have to take some responsibility here, and then we need parental responsibility.”