Bill At State Capitol To Be Named 'Anna's Law' After Girl Who Was Run Over By Her School Bus

PARACHUTE, Colo. (CBS4)- The parents of an 11-year-old girl from Parachute are sharing their heartbreaking story in hopes of saving the lives of other children. Annaliese Backner was run over and killed by her own school bus earlier this month.

"My baby passed away that morning... in front of her classmates, maybe not only a couple of hundred feet from my house," says Leandra Backner.

Her daughter's bus stop is now a memorial and the mom is now on a mission, "No one has to go through what me and my husband are going through right now."

Army veterans, these parents are marshaling what they call "Anna's Army" to help pass Anna's Law, a bill that makes sweeping changes to school bus safety, including equipping them with technology that allows school districts to track drivers' behavior and parents to track a bus's location.

Backner says her daughter's bus drove right past her, "I hear her school bus pass my window, every morning... late."

The technology would also include Bluetooth capability so parents could track not only the bus but their child, in case he or she got off at the wrong stop.

"The technology also knows whether the kids are on the bus or not, if they're near the bus," says Ward Leeber with the Child Safety Network, a national nonprofit that helped write the bill with the help of school districts, drivers and parents across the country.

Leber says school buses are the largest form of public transit and yet, he says, the State of Colorado has refused to put any money toward school bus safety.

"The State has billions of dollars in budget surplus, so it's only about one single thing and that's priorities."

The bill calls for $13.5 million in funding over the next three years to, among other things, recruit, train and pay drivers.

"There is no one more responsible for the safety and protection of these students than school bus drivers, so why would you pay those people only $14 an hour with no benefits?"

The money would also go to launch a public awareness campaign and purchase satellite technology for buses in parts of Colorado where there is no cell service.

"We tested all of this. We're not guessing if it works or not. It works," says Leber.

The Child Safety Network has funded training for bus drivers across the country, including anti-terrorism training by Homeland Security. Leber says they also help districts map safer routes that prevent kids from having to cross the street. He says they've cut accidents by 50% in some districts.

"I want Colorado to have the safest transportation system in the U.S. It's one of the toughest places to do it and we're ready. There's no reason to wait."

And yet, the bill failed two years ago and, this year, Democratic leadership in the Senate sent it to the so-called kill committee where lawmakers stripped its funding. The bill's sponsors, Senators Don Coram and Rachel Zenzinger are trying to get the money restored. They also plan to name the bill after Anna.

Her mom can't help but wonder if her daughter would still be here if the bill had passed earlier.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked lawmakers. "The worst has happened. The money is there."

Backner says her daughter had wanted to be an astrophysicist since she was 6 years old and change a world that she saw as full of infinite potential. Now, she says, it is up to her to make sure her daughter does, in fact, change the world before another child like her is killed by a school bus.

"I've tried to make every decision with Annaliese in mind, what she would want her mama to do. If it's the last breath I take... keep talking about this."