Dawnelle Lightbourn deals with road traffic victims all the time in her work as a nurse at an animal hospital.

Dogs, cats, you name it, she has seen the effect collisions with vehicles can have on an animal.

But none of this could prepare her for what she was to witness on Thursday, August 7, at the pedestrian crossing on St. Mary's Road in Warwick.

Running a little late, Ms Lightbourn found herself on the 7.15 a.m. 8C bus rather than her usual one when tragedy struck.

Six-year-old Tyaisha Cox was knocked over as she crossed the street to attend summer day camp at Purvis Primary School.

The bus waited at the crossing for the children to pass, but a jeep-type vehicle pulled out from behind the bus to overtake it and drove straight through the crossing, colliding with the youngster.

"I was on that bus and I was the first off it," said the tearful 29-year-old Warwick woman.

"I rushed to her side and she was lying on her back. I took my shirt off and put it over her and helped to roll her on to her side.

"It was like auto-pilot taking over when I did this and when I spoke to the ambulance people but then I just fell apart.

"I could see that she was not going to survive there and then. But when the news came through that she had died, I was still shocked.

"It was a shock because part of me still had hope that she would get through this."

Ms Lightbourn took the rest of the day off and she sought to deal with the emotion of what she saw. She has even written a poem entitled 'Not all Angels Have Wings'. to mark the life, and death, of the innocent victim.

Witnessing the accident at close hand, however, will not change her own perceptions of road safety, as even before this tragedy she refused to get on the roads.

"I could have taken my bike test," she continued.

"But why would I want to put myself at the mercy of these people? Watching people on the road scares me. I stick to public transport where I can."

And Ms Lightbourn is adamant that the tragic death of Tyaisha Cox should not be mixed up with the deaths of other motorists on the road ones she believes may not be as innocent as the six-year-old she witnessed being knocked down.

"I am not trying to make light of these other deaths, certainly not," said Ms Lightbourn.

"And any deaths on the road are a terrible tragedy, but what happened to this child is in a different category.

"A lot of people need to take responsibility for their own actions and for the way they drive on the roads. But this was the death of an innocent bystander who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"That child did not stand on the street and shout 'hit me'."

Ms Lightbourn also has clear views on how she thinks people should behave when out on the roads in the light of this tragedy: "You see people nipping in and out of traffic all the time and jumping red lights because they think they can just squeeze through.

"But I say to them, Bermuda is only 21 miles long, you can get from one end to the other in no time at all.

"There is no point in speeding, wherever you are going, it will still be there in five minutes' time and if you do speed you may not get there at all at the end of the day.

"Just slow down."

Ms Lightbourn is clearly still affected by what she saw that day, and having to put a dog down last week after yet another incident on the roads was another painful reminder of the fragility of life for those who take to the roads of this Island.