Karla Campos loved going to the beach.
She was a fan of Dora the Explorer.
And she loved chocolate milk.
Karla, 5, also spent weekends playing with her cousins, according to her aunt, Rena Hernandez.
Hernandez spoke to the AJC on Thursday after a short, impromptu memorial service for Karla, who died after being hit by a car as she stepped off a Cobb County school bus Wednesday afternoon, according to police.
She was in kindergarten, Hernandez said.
"My mother called me and let me know what happened," said Hernandez, who lives in Douglasville. "I just came running over here to see what happened."
Cobb police spokesman Joe Hernandez said Karla was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite Hospital but did not survive.
"They were going to let us see her (in the hospital)," Rena Hernandez said. "I believed she was alive, but she was not."
Karla has two younger siblings. Martin is 3, and Daniella is an infant, born three weeks ago, Rena Hernandez said.
The driver of the car, 82-year-old Edith M. Anderson of Roswell, was charged with vehicular homicide. Anderson was not injured.
Karla was let off the bus at a curb, but a car behind the bus continued to the right of the bus, running onto the curb and into the grass, police said. Police do not know what caused Anderson's 1995 Nissan Altima to exit the road.
Karla was a student at Mountain View Elementary in east Cobb, according to Cobb County school spokesman Jay Dillon.
Her mother and two younger siblings watched the incident, he said.
"This is a horribly tragic event, and we are praying for the little girl's family," Dillon said.
The accident happened around 2:45 p.m. at the intersection of Davis Road at Aberdeen Court in Marietta. The school bus, driven by 64-year-old Louis M. Smith of Marietta, was stopped and had its warning signals illuminated, police said.
Grief counselors will be at the school on Thursday, according to a message posted on the school's Web site.
Karla's aunt has three children of her own, ages 7, 5 and 3. Hernandez said the families lived together at one point when Karla was younger. They also took vacations together and saw each other every weekend.
"We're so close to her," Hernandez said.
Hernandez said her 7-year-old knows that her cousin is dead. The others are too young.
"My son is expecting to see her today," Hernandez said. "He doesn't realize that she's dead."
