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STONEVILLE — Hours after their classmate and next-door neighbor Nicholas Adkins was killed by a car while boarding a school bus, Malerie and Miosha Neal pondered what they could have done to save his life.

Under normal circumstances, the Neal sisters would have been standing at the bus stop with Adkins, 16. But because it had been so cold lately, they chose to wait inside their apartment until the last possible moment.

On Monday morning, Adkins was already at the bus stop as the Neals ran to catch the bus to McMichael High School.

Malerie Neal said she saw another vehicle speed by.

“It knocked the stop sign completely off the side of the bus,” the 18-year-old senior said.

Police said Adkins, a sophomore, was killed when 60-year-old Judy Earlene Stilwell of Stoneville failed to stop for the bus about 7 a.m. on West Main Street.

Stilwell has been charged with passing a stopped school bus involving injury or death.

Had a larger group been at the stop, the Neals said, maybe things would have turned out differently.

“Maybe she would have seen all of us,” said Miosha Neal, 15.

“We probably could have prevented it,” Malerie Neal said.

The bus had stopped, turned on its warning lights and extended its stop arm, according to witness and police reports. As Adkins crossed the road, he was hit by Stilwell’s Chevrolet Tracker as it headed west, police said. Adkins died at the scene.

Rodney Shotwell, superintendent of the Rockingham County Schools, said the death should remind drivers to be cautious around stopped school buses.

Family members at Adkins’ home at West Ridge Apartments declined to comment.

Students and staff at McMichael High said Adkins was “gentle and even-tempered.”

“Nick never had a bad word for anybody and was always positive,” said Roger Whitley, principal of McMichael High School. A crisis team was at the school Monday to help students and staff cope, Whitley said.

Adkins was finishing his first semester at McMichael; he had transferred from Morehead High School in Eden.

Lyn Carlisle, McMichael’s journalism and yearbook adviser, said what she admired most about Adkins is that he was willing to make himself vulnerable in order to achieve his goals.

He wrote for the school newspaper and contributed to the yearbook, Carlisle said.

Because he was shy, interviewing and photographing people worried him, Carlisle said. The teacher recalled on Monday handing Adkins a camera at the end of the semester. He came back with not one or two pictures, but a “ton,” she said.

Staff writer John Newsom contributed to this report.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com