A man has been convicted in the hit-and-run death of a 16-year-old Columbus, Indiana high school student struck by his car last year as she prepared to board a school bus.

Hundreds of extra Indiana police will be on alert this month to enforce safe driving on roads near buses, schools and residential areas.

A woman convicted in a 2018 crash that killed three siblings who were crossing a rural northern Indiana highway to board a school bus was released from prison Wednesday, after serving just over two years.

The Columbus East High School student was pronounced dead at a hospital after being struck about 6:55 a.m. while trying to board the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. bus.

Indiana drivers could find themselves facing more frequent and pricier tickets for illegally passing stopped school buses under a bill the state Senate passed Tuesday.

In Indiana, it's illegal for motorists to pass a bus that's stopped with its red lights flashing and stop-arm extended on all roads, except for vehicles traveling in the opposite direction as the bus on multi-lane roads divided by a physical barrier or unpaved median.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation is partially to blame for a 2018 crash that killed three siblings crossing a rural highway to reach their stopped school bus.

Nearly 40 police agencies used SAVE grants to pay for extra patrols surrounding schools and bus routes.

The Indiana woman who hit and killed three children while passing a stopped school bus in October 2018 has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Three of the students on the Central Noble Schools bus suffered minor injuries in the accident Tuesday morning.