A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Wednesday that the incident happened during normal school drop-off hours, roughly two blocks from the school. “This event demonstrates the critical value of our safety systems,” Waymo said in a blog post on Wednesday about the incident. The accident comes just a month after NHTSA sent Waymo a letter announcing a preliminary investigation following multiple reports that Waymo vehicles failed to wait for stopped school buses with flashing lights and instead drove around them. The probes come as Waymo continues expanding its robotaxi service into more cities.