THE family of a teenager killed crossing the road wants bus safety increased to prevent another tragedy.
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Brittany Goss, 15, of Sidmouth, was hit by a car just after getting off a bus on the West Tamar Highway in July.
Her parents, Peter and Lisa, said it was a freak accident but believed increased safety measures could prevent others from having to experience their loss and grief.
‘‘My hope is that we can do something to make it safer for everyone,’’ Mr Goss said.
‘‘We don’t want to see someone else go through this because it is the hardest thing for everyone and you never actually get over it.
‘‘So many kids around Australia are getting killed getting off buses,’’ her husband said.
Many of the bus stops along the upper West Tamar Highway are little more than gravel patches with buses often stopping in the middle of the roadway to let people off.
They would like to see better designed stops with more shelters along the route.
The Goss family said the flashing lights on buses were woefully inadequate and often weren’t used.
‘‘At the moment all you’ve got on the back window is two little lights going and half the time they don’t put them on,’’ Mr Goss said.
‘‘If they had a light on top and they were automatic so they did flash for 10 seconds afterwards, people on either side day or night can see someone’s just been dropped off in this vicinity.
‘‘And it is about education.’’
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BRITTANY Goss "loved being loved and loved to love back".
The 15-year-old Sidmouth schoolgirl was killed in July on the West Tamar Highway.
Her parents Peter and Lisa and younger sister Taylar maintain a level of stoicism that's incredible given the tragic circumstances.
Brittany was struck crossing the road as she got off a bus just metres from her waiting father.
Hundreds of sympathy cards fill their house. Like the 800 mourners at her funeral, the cards are a testament to the area's tight-knit community and Brittany's connection to it.
"You don't really know, until something like this happens, just how many people she touched," Mr Goss said yesterday.
They recall a story which tells plenty about their daughter.
On one of their many trips to Thailand the family arrived unannounced at a children's home.
Its tenants were all children whose mothers, many of them HIV infected, were incarcerated in the prison next door.
As the young Thais slept Brittany and Taylar distributed bags of toys brought from home on the children's beds.
When the young children woke up their "eyes were as big a plates", Mr Goss said.
"She was just beautiful inside and out," his wife says.
Brittany had dreams of working on stage.
"She had the ability to do whatever she wanted - acting dancing, singing she just had it," Mrs Goss said.
"But she was taken just as her life was beginning . . . it's shattering. "
The family says they can't thank enough those who stopped and helped at the scene, including an off-duty nurse, with three young children in the car, who tried to resuscitate Brittany for 20 minutes.
They also thanked Tasmania Police and paramedics - "what they did was above and beyond".
"They treated all of us not only with respect but Brittany with dignity as well," Mrs Goss said.
