MARLBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – The mother of a 5-year-old boy who choked to death on a school bus says her child may have been saved had monitors been required on buses.

Darnell Cobb was on his way home from a Marlborough elementary school Wednesday when he swallowed an object, which his mother says was a metal paper fastener.

Mayor Nancy Stevens said the bus driver immediately pulled over and radioed in a medical emergency. Paramedics brought the kindergartner to a nearby hospital, but he was later pronounced dead.

A grieving Sonja Cobb says she’ll push for monitors to be placed on school buses.

State law does not require bus monitors and Stevens says there have never been any on Marlborough buses.

The mayor called the death a “horrible accident,” and said emergency personnel did everything they could.

AP-ES-02-01-08 0712EST


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