On the afternoon of May 15, 2015, seven-year-old Ally Rednour stepped off her Jefferson County Public Schools bus near her babysitter’s house in Louisville, Kentucky.

She was a first grader at Wilkerson Elementary and a special needs student.

Her backpack strap caught in the door as it closed. Driver Melinda Sanders pulled away without seeing her.

Onboard camera footage later played in court showed the bus running a stop sign and reaching over 20 mph while Ally was dragged more than 1,000 feet, roughly three football fields, along the pavement.

It stopped only because a passing motorist, Matthew Lundergan, raced ahead of the bus, laid on his horn and blocked the road with his car.

Ally was taken to Kosair Children’s Hospital with severe road rash covering about 12 percent of her body.

She was discharged within two days, but the damage was permanent: her attorney later described 35 disfiguring scars and nerve damage that leaves her in daily pain. She was also diagnosed with PTSD.

Sanders was fired after the district found she had not watched Ally exit the bus as her training required. She was not criminally charged.

Ally’s mother, Amy Ehman, sued the district and the driver. The case reached trial in July 2021 and settled the morning before it went to the jury.

Court records later showed the insurer agreed to pay $4.8 million, structured in payments running through 2088.

Ally, then 13, described it herself in an interview that year: all of it, she said, came from 53 seconds.

Source: https://abcnews.com/US/caught-video-elementary-school-girl-dragged-school-bus/story?id=31107701