Update, 2:40 p.m., Saturday:
Troopers have identified the driver of the pickup truck as 32-year-old Jacob Philbin of Wasilla.
Troopers spokesperson Beth Ipsen said the girl was still listed in critical condition at Providence Hospital Saturday morning.
Original story:
A 10-year-old elementary school student was hit by a truck at a bus stop near Knik-Goose Bay Road Friday morning, Alaska State Troopers say.
A LifeMed Alaska helicopter flew the girl to Providence Alaska Medical Center, authorities said. Emergency officials say she suffered a head injury.
She remained hospitalized Friday afternoon, troopers said.
The pickup hit the child as it slid off the road into a ditch, according to an email from troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. Her school bus was stopped in the area of Edlund Road and Weeping Birch Street when the accident happened.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough dispatch notes of the 911 call described the girl as not conscious but breathing when the accident was reported at 8:39 a.m., according to emergency services director Dennis Brodigan. Dispatch notes represent only preliminary information. The bus driver saw the girl by the side of the road and called 911, Brodigan said. Another official said medics told the girl's parents that she spoke a few words before being loaded into the helicopter.
School district officials say the girl attends Snowshoe Elementary School.
"We have counselors available to students at Snowshoe," Mat-Su Borough School District spokeswoman Catherine Esary said Friday. "They've been there all morning."
Students throughout the Mat-Su area have to deal with unlit streets or no sidewalks while walking to school bus stops. Several parents on Friday said their children witnessed either the accident itself or the aftermath and it left them shaken. One mother said her son, whose stop was nearby, watched the pickup come around a corner and slide off the road.
The school's principal contacted families during the day Friday to inform them of the accident and planned to send home a letter with students, according to the message, which was shared on social media. Part of the message involved a reminder of school bus stop safety: get to the stop a few minutes early to avoid having to cross the road at the last minute; stay away from traffic; line up "five giant steps" from the edge of the road, Esary said.
"This is a school bus safety issue in a sense but really it's just a tragic accident at which there was a school bus," she said.
Troopers spent much of Friday morning mapping the scene of the accident, standard protocol for serious or fatal accidents, Peters said. The accident and investigation closed part of Edlund Road for a time.
Troopers were not releasing the names of the injured student or the driver involved in the accident, which remained under investigation.