It’s one of those moments as a parent that makes your heart skip a beat or two.
Your child is getting on or off a school bus when a driver in another vehicle decides to ignore the stop sign and flashing lights on the bus and drive on by.
“I live on 68 and I’ve seen cars pass buses running the stop sign four times this year,” said Danny Collins, whose daughter rides the bus to Straub Elementary School each day. “Just this past week a car ran the stop sign when the bus was picking up kids at the house just up the road from us. It was in the morning about 7 a.m. and dark. But it’s happened at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon, too. I think altogether I’ve seen four times this school year cars or pickup trucks passing stopped school buses with their lights on.”
In a split second lives can be changed forever or lost by a driver making a bad decision to disobey a very basic traffic safety rule — never pass a school bus when it is loading or unloading or when its lights and stop sign are activated.
In the past week, there have been numerous bus accidents reported across the nation including one in Indiana where a 9-year-old girl and her two 6-year-old brothers were hit and killed, and another child seriously injured, when they were struck by a 24-year-old driver while crossing the highway to reach their school bus.
And that is just the beginning; On Thursday, five children and two adults were hospitalized with injuries after all were hit by a car while waiting at a school bus stop in Tampaws, Fla. and a 7-year-old child was found dead by a school bus driver at a bus stop in Pennsylvania. The child had sustained injuries from being hit by a vehicle. On Wednesday, two brothers, 11 and 13 years old, were injured in Louisville, by a hit-and-run driver while crossing a busy intersection to get to their bus stop. and a 9-year-old child in Mississippi was fatally struck by a vehicle while crossing the road to get onto a school bus.
The problem isn’t new, Collins said, recounting his own experiences as a student riding the bus to school each day.
“I live in the house I grew up in and one time I really had a close call,” he said. “I was 13 or 14 years old and was crossing the road in front of the bus when a car ran right by and never slowed down. I saw the car and my bus driver, Sue Burns beeped the horn to warn me, but if I hadn’t been paying attention or was a little younger I may have been a goner.”
“There are three stops for the bus on this hill (Pyles Hill US 68) and from what I’ve seen of drivers ignoring the warning lights and signs on buses we have a serious problem,” Collins said. “And it’s just luck and bus drivers being on the ball that’s kept us from having a tragedy like Tuesday morning in Indiana.”
Mason County Schools Transportation Director Larry Brewer said his bus drivers take every precaution they can to ensure the safety of students. That includes having a monitor on every bus to escort younger students across the road and securing the bus before anyone is allowed to get off or on, he said. Pyles Hill is one of the district’s trouble spots for drivers disobeying traffic lows, he said. Another is in Maysville near the Mason County Public Library.
The district is also in the process of adding outside cameras to buses that would allow drivers to activate photos of vehicles that break the law and endanger students.
“We try to educate people, provide training for drivers, we do everything we can,” Brewer said. And as technology improves, so will the ability to protect students, he said.
“We hope nothing bad every happens,” Brewer said, while acknowledging that some things are outside the district’s control. In fact, just a few days ago, a vehicle passed a bus loading on campus, he said.
Mason County Sheriff Patrick Boggs said a photo was taken and given to his department in that case and his office is working to identify the driver.
Breaking bus safety laws is a “no tolerance” offense, Boggs said.
“It’s a ticket on the spot,” he said. In fact, if an officer witnesses the offense it can mean an arrest. In any case, the penalty includes a fine and possible jail time, the sheriff said.
While his department follows bus routes when manpower is available, Boggs said he will place deputies on buses if the availability of his staff increases. In the meantime, he said the public can help by reporting drivers who pass buses unlawfully or even by taking photos of vehicles and license plates when possible and contacting his office with the information.
“Please call us if you have information or evidence,” Boggs said.