HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — A mother whose 8-year-old child was killed trying to catch her school bus is not happy lawmakers are trying to weaken a law she helped pass to keep kids safe.
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Gov. Brian Kemp signed Addy’s Law last year after the tragic death of Adalynn “Addy” Pierce.
Addy’s mother, Ashley Pierce, was stunned to hear there is an effort afoot to reduce the fines for passing a stopped school bus. She says the law intends to make sure what happened to her happens to no one else.
“It was horrific. Because a driver could not stop,” she told Channel 2′s Tom Jones.
Pierce showed Jones where she watched her daughter cross Jackson Lake Road in Henry County in February last year to catch her school bus.
“Watched the car head this way, watched the car not stop, watched Addy step into the road and land over there,” she said, pointing to a spot where her family has created a memorial.
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Police charged 25-year-old Kaylee Andre with going around the stopped school bus--with its lights flashing and stop arm out-- and hitting and killing Addy.
“I don’t want that to happen to anybody else’s kid,” Pierce explained.
Pierce fought to get Addy’s Law passed. It increased fines to a minimum of $1000 for drivers who passed a stopped school bus. The bill carried a possible 12 months in jail.
Now there’s an effort to weaken it.
“$1,000 is a lot of money,” State Rep. Don Parsons told a legislative committee after he introduced HB 344, which would initially reduce the $1,000 fine. “It would be $300 for the first occurrence, $500 for the second and $1,000 for the third.”
Parsons says he’s gotten many complaints about the high fine, especially from real estate agents who travel a lot.
Pierce says the answer is simple: “All you have to do is stop and you will not get a ticket.”
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She is not happy her hard work and efforts at protecting children are in jeopardy.
“They’re basically saying we don’t want this to be criminal at all and we want to give someone three chances to kill a child.”
Lauren Daniel wrote Addy’s Law but is no longer in office.
“I don’t believe you will find a parent in the state of Georgia that will tell you that $1,000 is too much,” she said.
Pierce says she doesn’t understand why lawmakers are worried about lawbreakers and not the children the law protects.
“Show me where it’s not working...(be)cause all I know is there has not been another child that’s gone,” Pierce said.
Some members of the legislative committee say they’d like to amend HB-344 to reduce the fine to a flat $500 for each offense. They want to remove any potential jail time.
The committee will discuss those amendments and the bill on Friday morning. Pierce says she will be there to share why she wants lawmakers to leave Addy’s Law alone.
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