Roberts v. Burke County School District

In Roberts v. Burke County School District, 267 Ga. 665 (482 S.E.2d 283) (1997), the Supreme Court, construing an exclusion to a policy, held that a child's death did not arise out of the use of the school bus where a five-year-old child was dropped off at an unauthorized location and had to cross a busy highway to get home. Roberts, 267 Ga. at 667-668. The child had walked about four-tenths of a mile and the bus had traveled approximately two miles away from the drop-off before the child was struck. Roberts, 267 Ga. at 665. The Court acknowledged that although "use" of the school bus "can reach beyond actual physical contact," and that it encompasses unloading, the accident was so remote physically and temporarily from when the child disembarked, that the accident did not involve use of the bus. Roberts, 267 Ga. at 667-668.