Monday marks the start of National School Bus Safety Week, and local leaders are reminding drivers to stop for buses and pay attention to the roads.
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick joined education and transportation officials in Bucks County on Monday to get the message out and propose federal legislation to combat a growing problem.
The reminder comes as school districts say they continue to see drivers speeding past stopped buses, including a close call that we saw in Salisbury Township just last week. Monday’s event brought together everyone from lawmakers to bus drivers, all focused on protecting kids.
“Incidents of illegal school bus passings continue to plague our roadways and these endanger students lives,” said Curt Macysyn, executive director of the National School Bus Transportation Association.
At Krapf School Bus Company, yellow buses filled the lot as officials marked the start of National School Bus Safety Week, highlighting what it takes to keep students safe every day.
“Times have changed. Some things have gotten better in terms of technology. Some things have become more challenging, quite frankly, because of technology,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s a lot of distractions on the road.”
Fitzpatrick says the week is a time to pause and reflect on what it takes to make school transportation safe, and how distracted driving threatens that.
Palisades School District officials are working to educate families and new drivers about safety year-round.
“Road safety is a team effort so we urge every member of the public to remain vigilant, respect the flashing lights and stop signs and help us to protect our children around buses,” said Palisades School District Superintendent Bridget O’Connell.
Fitzpatrick is also sponsoring the Brake For Kids Act.
Transportation officials say the bill would help boost stop-arm enforcement and would provide a national safety campaign on the dangers of passing school buses illegally.
“I also call on motorists to take this threat seriously. Students whose lives are impacted by illegal school bus passings could be your son, could be your daughter, could be your grandchild,” Macysyn added. “We’ve heard of far too many stories where these offenses get pled down to nothing more than a parking ticket and that’s wrong and it needs to stop.”