Mr Bennett said the boy's parents were at their son's bedside. He would not be making any further comments until today.
A Starship spokesman said yesterday the boy was in a stable condition in the hospital's paediatric intensive care unit.
Reesby Buses director David Reesby confirmed a CityRide bus was involved in the incident. The driver and two passengers were on the bus.
The driver told him she had been slowing down before an intersection when she heard a bump as the boy collided with the door of the bus.
"It's pretty awful. She's shocked. We all really feel for the parents," Mr Reesby said.
A witness said the boy told him he was going across the road to get something from a petrol station when he saw the boy "smash" into the bus.
A number of children at the skate park saw the incident, including Rotorua Intermediate student Carlos Tahana, 12. "His scooter went under the bus. He just curled up on the ground and everybody was surrounding [him]."
Carlos said he held on to the boy's older brother to prevent him from getting in the way of emergency services. "I said 'just trust me he will be all right'," Carlos said. He said he rang the police.
Axel Price, 11, saw the incident.
"All these people were calling an ambulance and I went to calm down his brother. I told him to stay away from his brother, otherwise he was going to cry even more."
The injured boy was yelling out for his mother and brother. "When they went to lift him up [on the stretcher] he was screaming hard as."
After the incident, Axel said he didn't feel like riding his scooter and just wanted to go and see the boy in hospital.
Ashton Tipiwai, 12, saw the boy and his scooter collide with the left hand front of the bus and said the boy's scooter was "totalled". Ashton said children often went across the road without using the crossing at the traffic lights and he had seen a few near misses. Witnesses told The Daily Post the boy did not use the pedestrian crossing at the lights.
Anyone who has any information about the incident can call Rotorua police on (07) 348 0099.