More News

A Bethesda woman struck and killed by a school bus Wednesday is being remembered as a tireless advocate for the homeless.

Sheila Humphries, 60, was killed while attempting to cross Arlington Road in downtown Bethesda Wednesday afternoon.

"We're all just sort of standing around wondering what happened, and how we'll go on," said Susan Kirk, executive director of Bethesda Cares, a nonprofit where Humphries worked. "It's all just sort of overwhelming."

At approximately 1:20 p.m. Wednesday, Humphries was walking across Arlington Road at its intersection with Moorland Lane when she was struck by a school bus exiting Bethesda Elementary School, said Capt. Paul Starks, a Montgomery County Police Department spokesman. She was rushed to Suburban Hospital, where she later succumbed to her injuries.

The bus was driven by Gilbert Ventura Fuentes, a 43-year-old Hyattsville resident who has been a driver for Montgomery County Public Schools since 2001, said county schools spokesman Dana Tofig. Fuentes is currently on administrative leave while the collision is being investigated. Drug and alcohol tests will be administered to Fuentes, and an accident review panel will evaluate the incident. The review panel and drug and alcohol tests are standard procedure, Tofig said.

Investigators do not know yet if Humphries was in a crosswalk, Starks said.

Five students were on the bus at the time of the accident. Tofig said the students were being taken to Bethesda Elementary from magnet programs at Takoma Park and Eastern middle schools. None of the students or Fuentes were injured in the accident, and counselors are being made available to the students.

Co-workers at Bethesda Cares recalled Humphries as a determined worker, unrelenting in her desire to help the homeless.

"She was a gifted, gifted counselor and therapist," Kirk said. "The difference she made in so many peoples' lives is immeasurable."

Humphries worked with the chronically homeless, helping them land on their feet with housing or jobs. She worked at the Bethesda-based nonprofit for four years, Kirk said. A widow, Humphries is survived by her two grown sons.

Humphries moved to Bethesda from Florida as a teen, and graduated from Walt Whitman High School, Kirk said.

Fuentes has not been charged in the incident. Police inspectors will review the collision and present their findings to the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office in a few weeks, Starks said.