Thousands of drivers illegally pass stopped school buses each year in New York, putting children\u2019s live at risk with each infraction. Earlier this week, a 12-year-old student in Albany had to run after getting off the bus to avoid being hit by a car speeding on the shoulder. While that student survived the encounter, that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n
Flashing lights, stop signs, and even knowing that a child could be in the road isn\u2019t always enough to slow a driver down. That\u2019s where Operation Safe Stop comes in.<\/p>\n
The statewide initiative focuses on enforcing laws and raising awareness about drivers illegally passing stopped school buses.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn estimated 50,000 motor vehicles that illegally pass school buses each day in the state of New York,\u201d Camillus Police Chief Michael Shreyer said.<\/p>\n
School bus drivers have a big responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single day, our drivers transport what matters most: our students,\u201d Shelley Lamas said, the assistant school transportation director for the West Genesee Central School District.<\/p>\n
But as school bus driver Mark Letizia says, there\u2019s more to it than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is more than just getting students from Point A to Point B,\u201d Letizia said, \u201cIt\u2019s about protecting lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anytime a students gets on or off a bus, they\u2019re trusting that traffic will wait for them to safely do so. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m surprised actually. I was not aware that there\u2019s this many instances of passing a bus in our town,\u201d Camillus Police Sgt. Derrick Edick said.<\/p>\n
Edick has had to stop drivers for passing stopped buses before. He says the driver feigned ignorance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t really have anything other than to say he didn\u2019t realize that the school bus was stopped,\u201d Edick recalled.<\/p>\n
But a big yellow bus with flashing lights is pretty hard to miss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re paying attention to the roadway, you should see that it has flashing red lights and a little stop signs sticking out,\u201d the sergeant said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just to be flashy, these lights are supposed to make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not a suggestion, they are not a warning, they are child safety in action,\u201d Letizia said. \u201cBecause behind every stop is a child who deserves to make it safely to school and safely back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
In order to ensure that safe transport, they need community cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few extra seconds of waiting could save a child\u2019s life,\u201d Letizia said.<\/p>\n
Operation Safe Stop<\/a> is part of the larger No Empty Chair<\/a> campaign that kicks off next week. The campaign has a goal of ensuring every student makes it to graduation without any traffic related fatalities. Each day of the campaign will focus on a different individual initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n Monday: Speeding in school zones
\nTuesday: Seatbelts and child restraints
\nWednesday: Cell phone use and distracted driving
\nThursday: Operation Safe Stop
\nFriday: Impaired Driving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of drivers illegally pass stopped school buses each year in New York, putting children\u2019s live at risk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[387,257,6314,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,308,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-201306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-central-ny","10":"tag-natalie-mooney","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-public-safety","19":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}