The grieving father of a girl killed while crossing the street with her younger brothers to board their waiting school bus hopes that their deaths will inspire change.
Alivia Stahl, 9, and her twin brothers, Xzavier and Mason Ingle, were fatally struck by a car on Tuesday morning in Indiana. It's believed that Alivia tried to shield her younger siblings from the oncoming vehicle.
Speaking Friday at a vigil for the children, Alivia's father, Michael Stahl, mourned his daughter's tragic death.
"I don't get to watch my baby grow up," he said, according to WLS. "I don't get to watch her have her sweet 16, don't get to watch her have prom, I don't get to take her and walk her down the aisle to get married.
"That's all gone. It's gone."
However, he continued, all he can hope for is that the three children's deaths prevent something like this from ever happening again.
"To see the impact our kids have made with everybody out there ... that's what the purpose was, that maybe God had intended," he said. "It means their lives weren't taken in vain."
The siblings have one older sister, age 11, who stayed home that day and is struggling with survivor's guilt.
"She asked me 'Why am I still here? Why did they only take them and not me?'" Stahl said. "What do you tell an 11-year-old child?"
The driver of the car that hit the three siblings, 24-year-old Alyssa Shepherd, has been charged with three counts of reckless homicide as well as a misdemeanor for passing a stopped school bus. She has been released on $15,000 bond and has not yet entered a plea.
The incident in Indiana was one of several in the past week involving children waiting at and walking to bus stops.
In Mississippi, a fourth-grader was killed by a truck as he boarded his school bus. In Pennsylvania, a 7-year-old was found dead by a bus stop in a hit-and-run. And in Florida, five children and two parents were seriously injured when a motorist struck them at a school bus stop.
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