Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Grieving father of child killed in school bus crash demands better protections for our kids

Episode Date: June 21, 2018

When Jovanny Vargas said goodbye to his twin daughters as they left for a school field trip, it was the last time he would see 10-year-old Miranda. The elderly school bus driver missed an exit and attempted a u-turn on the busy NJ highway. A truck slammed into the bus. Miranda and teacher Jennifer Williamson died. The bus driver, 77-year-old Hudy Muldrow Sr., had a license at the time, but it had been suspended 14 times. Nancy Grace visits with the father who is campaigning for better school bus safety. They're joined by Det. Christine Mannina -- a former Indianapolis homicide detective who hosts the "Mannina Files" podcast, psychologist Caryn Stark, juvenile judge and lawyer Ashley Willcott, and  reporter Chuck Roberts. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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A horrific crash. A school bus crash. Claiming the lives of a young child and a teacher. Why? Why is this happening? Every time you turn on the news, every time you see a billboard by the side of the street, it talks about seatbelts. It talks about car safety. It talks about not texting for Pete's sake.

Oprah's talking about not texting. It's against the law to drive or be in a car without a seatbelt. Why? seatbelt. Why in this day and age is there a fatal school bus crash with a beautiful child dead? Joining me right now, Giovanni Vargas, the father of that wonderful child whose life is lost in a needless crash. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. We want justice first to Giovanni Vargas. Thank you so much for being with us.

Tell me what happened on that fateful day. Nancy, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Bear with me. I said I would be strong, and I'm trying my best. That day, that morning was a good morning. You know, as usual, we got them ready. We got them ready for school.

And I say them because she had a twin who is with us today. She's listening in. She's here next to me. And it was a good morning. They were excited about the trip. Miranda got ready before her sister and she made sure I knew that. And she was ready.

She was ready to leave and she gave her mother a kiss. We went outside. We got in the car, as we usually would, but something prompted her to go back inside and give her mother more kisses. And she did that. She came back in the car and sat in the car

and said, Dad, I'm ready. And I would always drop them off at school every morning. So I drove them to school, and she got out of the car. And as usual, I can't say it was the first time she did it, but she would drown me with kisses. And I didn't know it would be the last time. I see her. But I watched her walk away.

And I even said, honey, you got to hurry it up because there are cars behind us. She said, okay. I love you, daddy. And she left. So, I went back home. Finished getting ready for work. I went back home, finished getting ready for work. I went to work. My wife calls me.

She says, babe, there was an accident in Mount Olive. And I think it might have been the school bus. And, you know, you're in denial at that point. And I said, no, babe, it can't be. How do you know this? She said, babe, I think it is. Can you please look into it? I called the school.

The school said yes. There was an accident. And yes, Miranda was on that bus. Of course, my heart stopped. I didn't know how to tell my wife that, but I knew I had to. I called her right back. I said, babe, yes, she was on that bus, or she is on that bus. And she took it very hard.

I raced home. I told everyone I had to leave. But again, I'm trying to be optimistic about it. I've always been a full-time guy. I'm as positive as they get. I said, no, it can't be, no. She's fine. I know she is.

But yet, I couldn't help worrying obviously as a father and and and we were both crying I picked her up meaning my wife um and we drove to what we thought was a hospital where she was um and after that long drive we found out she wasn't there. We did get a runaround. Everywhere we called, she was not there. No one would give us a straight answer. We called the school. The school would tell us, you know, we don't know anything. We don't know anything. We don't know anything. So we were obviously frantic after maybe over an hour of asking and searching and worrying, and my in-laws are all over the place, finally, Morristown Hospital reached out to us and said, we have her. Those exact words.

And I was so excited because I thought that, you know, bumps, bruises, anything but this. So we raced to the hospital. We got there. And, you know, we also, we had to wait even longer. It was gut-wrenching. There's lots of parents crying, worried about their kids. I'm listening to doctors tell parents, your son needs brain surgery, or, you know, I'm hearing the worst things.

And then a nurse sits next to us and says, I asked her, how were the kids? She says, oh, bumps and bruises. So that made me feel a little better. After maybe, I don't know, 45 minutes of just sitting and waiting and crying, finally, one of the nurses says, okay, we have information for you. Come with us. I knew something was wrong because behind us was maybe five, six different people, suits. They're following us, and they take us into a room and we're sitting in the room and there's a what appeared to be some type of therapist staring right at us and and i say to her i asked her

why are you what's going on this is gut-wrenching and she said can you please she told someone else can you please get them in here so the moment I saw a priest walk through that door, everything stopped moving. Everything stopped. I knew something was wrong, very wrong. And the chief of police, Paramus police, came to my wife and said, I'll never forget these words.

We tried to do everything for her little body. But we couldn't. We couldn't do anything. We couldn't save her. It was the worst moment of our lives. I didn't know what to do with myself. I was still trying to support my wife. No one else

knew. Slowly, the rest of the family started to come in. And of course, they clearly lost it. She was very special to all of us. She was a good girl.

Very self-hearted. Loved kids. Just anyone who knew her, knew that she was just an amazing human being. No malice. Ten-year-old still watching cartoons, 10-year-old looking after tiny kids, watching Guava Juice and gymnastics, and she's very into gymnastics and loved Hernandez.

I forget her name. Lori Hernandez. Ellen DeGeneres was one of her favorites, and she just was a great kid so from that day on our lives have obviously changed it's very hard very very hard

to even fathom moving forward but that being said to even fathom moving forward. But that being said, I know, and I've been trying to be strong for my family. It's just hard to tell the story. I've been trying to be very hard for my baby,

my Madison, who's sitting next to me. My wife, who has taken this extremely hard. It's very hard to even, again, fathom moving forward without my baby. Every morning, the mornings are the hardest. You come to the realization that it's true. It's not a nightmare. It's real. I know I can't do anything about this in terms of

bringing her back. I know that. She will always live with me. She will always be in my heart. And I know I can't do anything, but being that she was such an advocate of kids, she would get awards called Pat on the Back Awards, which meant that she would help a kid. She was great, in helping kids. I think this is going to help me

with my healing process, my wife's healing process, and my baby's healing process. What happened should have never happened. It should have never happened. This was pure negligence on many parts, not just the driver. I don't just blame, of course it's his fault, for doing such an egregious decision and taking my baby from me.

But I blame many folks, many folks that could have avoided this from happening, avoided him from being on that seat, avoided this, these buses for being in the condition that they are and not being properly, you know, structured with the proper seat belts. I still wonder how did that, how did that bus come, come off, come apart from the actual chassis? You know, there's so many things that, so many questions that I have. With me speaking is Mr. Giovanni Vargas, the father of a beautiful, beautiful on the outside and on the inside,

little 10-year-old girl, a twin, Miranda, who was killed in a horrific and fatal school bus crash. Giovanni, you stated that mornings are the hardest time for you. I had that same experience after my fiance was murdered. Mornings and late nights, why are mornings so much more difficult for you? Because you wake up hoping it was a bad dream. You really do. You still, you know, I think initially we're in a state of denial. We're in a survival state. And again, when I wake up, I realize that I'm awake and I'm without my baby. During the day, we try to keep as busy as possible. I try to be as strong as possible. And again, supporting my wife and my daughter and keeping them busy and doing whatever it takes to get through to the day. You know, a lot of folks will tell you, take it day by day.

I disagree. And I disagree because I heard something on YouTube. And of course, and you would know, Nancy, in this initial stage, you're hungry for information. You're hungry for answers. You're hungry for information. You're hungry for answers. You're hungry for solutions. And so we go on YouTube and we're looking for grief counseling or advice or something. And a gentleman that lost his girls said, I took it one breath at a time.

And that's exactly what we're doing. And I'll speak for myself. That's exactly what we're doing, and I'll speak for myself. That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm taking it one breath at a time, and getting through a day is really, really, really hard. There's a brand-new website causing a lot of trouble for people with something to hide. Have you ever had a bad feeling about somebody, maybe suspected your partner's cheating,

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Why fork out thousands to a private investigator when you can do the job yourself? Everybody you know has something to hide. Now you can root out the most dangerous people before you become the next victim. It's not just used to bust bad people. Truthfinder helps Americans reunite with friends, family, even people who served with them in the military. It's never been so easy to find the truth. Go to truthfinder.com slash Nancy and enter any name to get started. It is with a heavy heart that we stand before you. Earlier this morning, three buses from the

Paramus Board of Education carrying fifth graders from Eastbrook Middle School was en route to Waterloo Village in Stanhope, New Jersey on a class trip. At 1021 hours, one of the buses was involved in a serious motor vehicle crash involving a dump truck near exit 25 on Interstate 80 westbound in Mount Olive, New Jersey. There were 38 students and seven adults on the bus, including the driver. A total of 43 people of that 45 were injured and transported to area hospitals for treatment. We know that 21 patients are at Morristown Medical Center, 10 patients at Hackenstown Hospital, 3 patients at St. Clair's Dover, 4 patients at St. Clair's, Denville, three patients at UMD and Jane Newark, and two patients at St. Joseph's in Patterson. Some patients are in critical condition and currently undergoing surgery,

so please keep everybody in your prayers. With me now, Giovanni Vargas, his beautiful daughter, beautiful on the inside and the outside. I'm looking at her photo right now. Big, big smiling face. Lost her life on that school bus crash. A needless crash. A senseless crash.

And he's sharing his story with us. Mr. Vargas, thank you for being with us. You were describing how morning times are the worst time for you. And I've got to tell you, the same thing would happen to me. I would wake up in those first maybe five seconds. I would think it was a normal day. The sun would be coming through the window. I'd spring out of bed.

And before I could even really get my feet on the ground, I would remember, oh, dear Lord in heaven, this is real. This is real. It's really happening. I just, as you know, my children, my twins are 10, just like yours. And everybody thinks I'm crazy when they go on a school trip to the museum or here or there. I am a nervous wreck. For a while, I actually followed the school bus and then they busted me. And I thought, okay, this is crazy.

But it's not. What is your understanding, Giovanni Vargas, as to what went wrong? I ask myself that question every day. But again, Nancy, there are so many different things that could have been done to avoid this. Again, we can't turn back time. But going forward, Nancy, we can definitely focus around the vetting piece. I think that that ball was dropped multiple times. Oh, it really did, Giovanni. To Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Chuck, Mr. Vargas is right.

There were so many things that went wrong. What do we know about the crash, the bus driver, and the condition of the school bus and the seatbelts? Well, Nancy, the bus was one of three, actually, from Paramus to Waterloo Village for this school trip. And it was being driven by a 77-year-old driver, Hootie Muldrow, who has quite a record, several violations, including speeding, but nothing more than that. No DUI. Eight speeding tickets, though uh and he became separated from the other two buses

when they missed the exit let me just stop you right there chuck roberts it's one thing for you to have a speeding ticket or me to have a speeding ticket but when you are in charge of driving children who cannot protect themselves a lot of. Parents don't expect that the bus driver has not one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, but eight speeding tickets. If we've busted him six, eight times, how many times has he been speeding that he wasn't caught? So let's just not gloss over eight speeding tickets. I mean, for other people, that's nothing. But for somebody who is responsible for 30-plus children

that he's holding in the palm of his hands, that's the big deal to me. All right, so let's just establish that. And there's no system in New Jersey to inform school districts about driver suspensions. So that's a glaring omission. Well, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Shouldn't they be doing their own homework to find that out? Yeah. Do I have to hand it to the principal on a silver platter with an engraved invitation to open the envelope? Why are you talking? Did he have a suspended license? No, he had a current license. He had a current license. But you're correctly pointing out, Chuck Roberts, that there's no way that schools are automatically told when a driver has a

suspended license. You know what? Don't care. That's their responsibility. When I pay my taxes, that is for them to get paid to do their job. Bam. Now, this school bus and this driver, what do we know, Chuck? Westbound on I-80, they all missed the correct exits. And Muldrow, for some reason, decides that he wants to go back onto I-80 and make a U-turn at an emergency crossover. And he crosses at a very steep angle over several lanes of traffic and is hit by a dump truck in the third lane. The impact is so great, it separates the chassis from the vehicle. And the bus is on its

side, and the kids are upside down. And as you point out, a teacher and little Miranda Vargas are killed. Several are still in the hospital. And the driver is facing two counts of vehicular homicide, but he's free on bond. His next appearance is on Monday, June 25th. It'll go before a grand jury at that point. You guys with me, Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, New York psychologist Karen Stark, and special guest, the father of little Miranda, who lost her life just 10 years old, a twin, and that horrific school bus crash, Mr. Giovanni Vargas. I mean, Giovanni, am I the only one that uses Google Map or Waze? What do you mean they got lost and did some type of emergency turnaround. When you have children in your care,

why would you be trying to figure out as you're driving which way to go and getting all twisted up? And they all three didn't know where they were going. Hence the crazy move to do this basically UE to get get back on the interstate i don't get that and mr vargas what can you tell me about the the seat belt situation on the bus from what i'm told uh the the only uh seat belts that were available were the lap seat belts that from what i hear are not very sturdy, if you will. That's exactly why I'm very proud of Peter for saying and doing what he's doing.

We are sticking together to make sure that the three-point seatbelts are enforced. I think that bill has already been presented. Well, hold on, vargas i couldn't agree with you more regarding an 11 year old little boy who is leading the fight to change seat belt practices in buses now let me ask everybody who is on my panel right now and who is listening right now, why do we have to rely on an 11-year-old child to do our work? We need to be doing this ourselves and joining this little boy. Listen to what he says. I was thinking that seatbelts on the buses aren't as safe as the ones that are in my mom and dad's cars.

Their cars have seatbelts called three-point harnesses. Buses only have two-point harnesses. When my mom and dad stop short in their cars, my body only moves a little bit. When the bus stops short, my upper body curls forward and hits the seat in front of me. Why would we make the buses that carry kids less safe than the cars that our parents drive us around in? This little boy, Peter Kamaniti, was hanging upside down in this bus crash. I mean, hanging upside down. Hanging there. And this child is leading the crusade. What is wrong with our leaders and our assemblies and our legislatures?

This is not about the federal government. This is about our local governments and this beautiful child one of a twin has lost her life because of our inaction with me her father Giovanni Vargas when you're talking about her and her sweet nature and her twin it is just killing me Giovanni because all I can think about are Lucy and John David and every time they get on a bus to go somewhere with their school I'm thinking about what you just said about that morning when you hear there's been a crash and I know that moment is going to live with you the rest of your life. At any time as you were heading over, did you think that Miranda could have been one of the victims?

Never. Never in a million years, Nancy. Again, I kept on telling myself and telling my wife, she's okay. Just bumps and bruises, baby, it's okay. Just trying to calm her down. But never in a million years did I imagine that I would be told this. Once they finally gave me a clear explanation as to what had transpired. Never, Nancy, never.

And God bless, and I have to tell everyone this and god bless your children and and we have to take aside from everything we're discussing in terms of of retrofitting the buses and and doing what's right for the kids we have to take more time with our kids i thank god that i have always been a parent who puts my kids and my family first. I chose the career I chose because it gave me the flexibility of dropping them off and picking them up and helping them with their homework and putting them to bed and giving them a kiss and just going to their concerts. I never missed a concert. I never missed a concert. I never missed anything. And I thank God for that, because I know that today I would be torn knowing that I didn't spend that time. So I'm telling

everyone out there, please hug their child. You don't tomorrow. It's not promised. It could be the other way around. That child may not see the parent again. Let's stop taking this for granted. These are our children. Yes, they have to be protected. We entrust these school buses. We entrust the Board of Education, the drivers. But at home, we have to do the best we can to show them and give them the love that they deserve.

And I know this is pretty much off the topic, but I had to say that because it's so important, Nancy. You know, Mr. Vargas, you couldn't say anything more important. I hear what you're saying after my fiance's murder it completely changed my life and yes, even this morning I dropped the children off at Vacation Bible School and when I drove back off I looked back in the mirror and I thought

are they going to be safe? Will I be here to pick them back up? Will they be okay? I still think that way after all this time. Every time they leave or I drop them somewhere, I'm worried. Yet the other side of that double-edged sword is that when I am with them, my whole world is about them because I know as you do how it feels to lose the thing you love the most let me ask you this mr. Vargas how is your wife and how is Miranda's twin oh but my wife has not been well. She's not been well at all, as you would imagine.

She also has some health problems that have made it harder for her. In terms of my daughter, Madison, her initial approach was a resilient one because children are resilient. And I knew they were, I've always known they're resilient, but Madison has been extremely resilient. As a matter of fact, at the beginning, she was our, and continues to be, our rock. You know, she would come to me and say, Daddy, if you want to talk, let's talk that she would say that. Would you rather see her a vegetable that would you so many things to try to make me feel better? This is a 10 year old telling me this. And she says, I know Miranda's with me and I know she's in a better place dad you know that I need you to be strong

dad we're going to see her one day dad I cannot I cannot really put it in words how resilient this little girl has been recently it's it's it's been I guess it's affected her a little more I guess the reality piece is coming in. We recently, we haven't been able to return to our home. We are trying to relocate because just a thought, just a memory. It's just overwhelming. We sold our vehicles. We're doing our best to try to start over, which is just impossible. But we entered the house last week, and it really, really, I think it was a mistake on my part because it affected my little one.

Memories just started coming in, and she said, Dad, don't touch the lamp. She was the last one to turn it off. Dad, mom don't lie on that side of the bed. That's her side. I know that we can't go back there but she even said to me, dad, I wish I could see her again even if I see her in the casket. She's going through different phases, Nancy, to answer your question.

And as parents, we're trying to be as strong as possible and make the right decisions. But we all know that going back there, she grew up there. She grew up there. Her running down the stairs, and Daddy made me breakfast because I made them breakfast and their lunch every single day. So it's been hard for her, but she chose to sit here next to me today because she feels the way I do. She wants to fight back.

She's a very strong young lady. She's a type A personality. She wants to be a surgeon. And I think she's going to be a big part of this fight. With me is Giovanni Vargas, who lost his beautiful daughter Miranda in a horrific and unnecessary school bus crash, bringing the spotlight now on the condition of those buses, the histories and the reliability of their drivers, and the lack of three-point seat belts. Getting through a day is really, really, really hard. And that's exactly why I've chosen to do whatever it takes to help these children going forward. I have my children Nancy you have your children there are children all across this country that need our help. With me is Giovanni Vargas the father of

little 10 year old Miranda who lost her life in a senseless and horrific school bus crash. And with us is Miranda's 10-year-old twin, Karen Stark and Chuck Roberts. Mr. Vargas just detailed why he did not want to go back into his home where they lived as the family with little Miranda. Karen Stark, New York psychologist, you know, Karen, I tried and tried and tried. I went back to Keith's home to be with his parents for some time after his murder. And at a certain point, I just would be destroyed every time I would leave. I've never been able to bring myself to visit the spot where he was killed. Why is that? And Mr. Vargas doesn't want to go back in the home. What is that phenomenon? Well, what happens then is that it triggers a response in your brain

that brings back all the memories, the trauma of what happened, the memories of the person, just like with little Madison. When she's there, she begins to relive the life she had with her sister. And then it becomes even more excruciating that the person is no longer with you. As you described, getting up in the morning and thinking maybe it was all a bad dream. And this is that same kind of phenomenon where all of a sudden your brain begins to produce all these memories. It's unbearable. I'm so sorry. This is a terrible, terrible story.

To Mr. Vargas, who is joining us along with Miranda's twin, Mr. Vargas, you know that federal law requires smaller school buses that weigh less than 10,000 pounds to have the three-point shoulder belts, the lap shoulder belts. But the thing is, if they're not 10,000 pounds, if they're, excuse me, over 10,000 pounds, that's not required. And the state is allowed to pass regulations requiring the seat belt that Miranda needed. Now, listen to this, Giovanni. There are seven states that have passed a variation of those seatbelts for larger school buses like the one Miranda was in. But get this, they haven't funded it. Which means, as I've been screaming forever,icians brag that we passed this requiring three-point seatbelts. We passed this, that, this. But they don't fund it.

And they know full well it will never be implemented if they don't fund it. Do you know, Giovanni, if all the students even were told that they had to put on their seatbelts? I would imagine not. I would imagine not, Nancy. And, you know, in addition to the seatbelts, and this is just me thinking out loud, today's technology offers so much. We have applications to track a heart rate rate for God's sakes, right? Why do we not have something on a bus that will let us know that seat 16 does not have a seat bell on? Why is it that a multi-billion dollar business like an airliner has a stewardess who walks up and down and says,

Mrs. Grace, can you please put on your seatbelt? But our kids, our kids, for God's sakes, our kids, they unfortunately do not receive this benefit, this protection, this support, I guess it's because we're not a multi-billion dollar business, or unfortunately the legislation is focused on so many other things, but the kids, I mean, do they not have kids? Do they not care? Even if you don't, you don't have to have children to care. You have to have a half a heart, not even a full heart. These are our future, our children, for God's sake. What is it gonna take? Is not the death of my daughter enough

for them to make a change? You asked me earlier what went wrong. Everything went wrong. The bus driver, the board of education, the state, the DMV. I can go on forever. Everyone dropped the ball. And now you're telling me that they passed a law that has not been funded.

Where is the logic behind that? I mean, do our kids mean anything? I'm lost. I'm lost for words. I don't even know what to say. 25 million children are riding school buses today. 25 million. How can we determine, authorities determine,

whether wearing a three-point seatbelt would have saved her life. We know the investigation of crashes involved the examination of a vehicle's restraint system, and that means seatbelts. Now, you look at the vehicle, in this case a school bus, and it's conditioned post-impact. And an expert reconstructionist may be able to tell if the seat belt was buckled or not at the time of the crash. Now, most modern seat belts are installed in the front passenger seats of cars, and they are equipped with pre-tensioners. pre-tensioners. Those are pyrotechnic devices that deploy when a vehicle is in a crash. Another thing to Mr. Vargas, Miranda's dad, is if you're not wearing a seatbelt, in so many cases, you hear an alarm. It's in every vehicle. If you're not wearing your seatbelt and there's

pressure on that seat, you hear an alarm. And school buses, I don't understand why the vehicle would even crank up and go and drive until every child has on their seatbelt, Mr. Vargas. Exactly. You know, in many cases, the consequences of the deployment of pre-tensioners, those pyrotechnic devices, is the locking of a seatbelt. And you can look at that and determine was the seatbelt in place, was it clicked on. That way you know whether that is a factor in the case. Regarding three-point seatbelts, exactly what are those, Chuck Roberts, that we've been talking about?

They are the kind that are in just about every car on the road today, and there's a huge lobbying effort to get them on school buses, and also for a manifest of students. These kids had no IDs on them. There was, as you pointed out earlier, Nancy, there was no GPS device. There was no onboard camera to record driver behavior. And we heard from the 11-year-old, the fifth grader, Peter Caminiti, he also told the legislative panel that the kids around him were not wearing their belt, most of them. So you have all that to digest. You know, the cost of a three-point belt is about 60 bucks. And that is if you go online to try to buy one.

Think of how little they would cost if they were bought in mass and put in to existing school buses. To Mr. Vargas, who lost his daughter Miranda in this school bus crash. What is your response to what you're learning about the school bus driver and the horrible decision he made that day? Well, regarding the re-outfitting of the school bus, Nancy, after speaking with the congressman, the information that we found out is that it would be under $7,000 to re-offer these buses. And him and I agreed. If we have to do a bake sale to support it, so be it. Legislator sees this as too much money to protect kids. Well, that's fine.

We'll figure something out, but something has to be done. How do I feel regarding all the information? I'm disgusted. I am, you know, I am beyond frustrated. I really wish, I really wish that this would have been addressed a long time ago. Nancy, you said that, you know, 25 million students, right? We're looking at about 600 school buses on a daily basis, carrying 25 million kids. Why did this have to happen for something to take place, for someone to finally wake up and, you know,

this battle's not even complete or or won yet but why did this have to have why did i have to lose my girl for this to happen for something to take place and that's and i know that what i'm about to say i know this is not the topic of discussion but we look at the schools how many shootings have to take place for someone to finally step up and do something about this? It's a pattern. This school, okay, we, you know, a little interview on TV. Great, wonderful.

Pat on the back. Good job. Next school. When is this country going to realize that our kids are important? I'm assuming they have children. I'm assuming they have family that does. And again, you don't have to be a parent to understand the value of a child. So I feel absolutely disgusted, but yet strong and determined in making sure that we win this fight.

I know it's going to be an uphill battle, but I'm prepared. Very honestly, there is nothing that's ever going to stop me. I am going to fulfill her legacy. Well, you know what, Giovanni? Brace yourself, because 42 states do not require lap and shoulder belts on large school buses. Yeah. 42. buses. 42. 42. And that means that every time most children get on a school bus,

they're at risk. Our smallest, and you know what we go through with, you have to have a booster seat and a car seat, reverse the seat, make it point to the back, this and that. The sensors on the cars, 25 million children at risk. And we just go about life with blinders on like it's okay. It's not okay. Giovanni Vargas, I want you to speak to our listeners now and explain to them what you have been going through

since Miranda lost her life and what needs to be changed now. On a daily basis as I mentioned earlier Nancy it's really a struggle just to get by you know this morning I woke up and I said to my mother-in-law, I said, I think I'm in denial because I still keep trying to find a way to bring her back.

And I guess this is a normal reaction. The pain that we feel on a daily basis is almost as though you're, you know, very honestly, I asked myself, am I going to have a heart attack? Because that's how excruciating the pain is. A lot of initial thoughts that made no sense went through our minds, but of course, they went away pretty quick, considering that we have Madison. Madison is definitely our rock, and we're going to continue moving forward for her. In terms of what we need to do going forward, we all need to come together, no matter what it takes, Nancy, for your kids, for my kids, for the kids of America. We have to come together. Instead of all this ridiculous news that you see on TV about Russia and all this ridiculous garbage, I'm sorry to speak this way,

we need to focus more on our children. We need to come together. Our voices have to be heard. If you and I, Nancy, work together, along with every other parent or human being in this country, I am sure that we can make a change. And I have to thank, again, the Congressman who presented the bill. He's calling it the SAfer Act, right? Better known as the Miranda Law. I was honored by that. And I would be honored if that actually takes place,

if we can name the law after my baby. And we need people like you to stand by us and make sure that this legislation is passed, to make sure that this is not just another accident that's going to be swept under the rug. Whatever it takes, Nancy, I am determined. The anger and the pain that I feel, I have to funnel it. And this is my way of funneling. I have the kids in mind. I've visited them along with my, with Madison at the hospitals. My prayers go out to them and we are determined because this is

exactly what Miranda would want. And that is exactly why we want to call it the Miranda Law. Joining me is Giovanni Vargas, whose message we are sending out today, loud and clear, in memory of his beautiful daughter, Miranda. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. There's a brand new website causing a lot of trouble for people with something to hide. Have you ever had a bad feeling about somebody? Maybe suspected your partner's cheating? Maybe worried about your online reputation? If you answer yes to any of those questions, you may need Truthfinder.

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