Page 10 - Work Force October 2019

Every day, millions of parents across our state trust bus drivers with their children’s lives, and our members who work as bus drivers and monitors take this responsibility seriously.
The Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee reports that 2.3 million children across New York State travel to and from school by school bus every year.
While school buses are considered one of
the safest forms of transportation on the road, many drivers have harrowing stories about being put at risk for injury or death, often due to distracted and unsafe driving.
Every day, thousands of motorists ignore flashing red lights and illegally pass school buses while they are loading and unloading children. One survey estimated that nearly 55,000 drivers passed a stopped school bus on a single day in New York, including nearly 700 cases of drivers passing on the side where students were boarding and exiting.
Our union is fighting to ensure that everyone who rides a school bus is as safe as possible, including through legislation.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed the legislation (A.4950B/S.4524B) allowing for the use of school bus safety cameras to capture vehicles that illegally pass stopped school buses and increase penalties for violators. CSEA strongly supported the legislation.
Another CSEA priority bill (S.5705/A.7538A) would require that school bus drivers and monitors be included in district-wide and building-level school safety teams, as the drivers and monitors play a key role in ensuring students’ safety. The bill had passed both legislative houses earlier this year, but has
not yet been delivered to the governor as this edition went to press.
“We hear from our school bus drivers every day about drivers who illegally pass their stopped buses, putting the children they drive at risk,” CSEA President Danny Donohue said. “Our bus drivers and monitors are constantly on the watch to protect them, but we can never be too safe. We applaud our state elected officials for their support of these bills.”
Our members discussed with The Work Force’s Therese Assalian, Wendi Bowie, Jessica Ladlee and Ove Overmyer their accounts of near misses on the road and support for the new law.
10 The Work Force
“Every day, we’re seeing people ignoring the red lights when we’re stopped. We don’t just have to be aware of the drivers, but also have to make sure the students are paying attention. Many of [the students] are wearing earbuds listening to music as they’re getting on and off the bus, which means they might not hear what’s going on.
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— Virginia Connell, bus driver and Beacon City School District Unit Treasurer
“People are passing by stop signs all of the time. Whether we’re picking up the kids or dropping them off, every day people fly past us with very little regard for the kids’ safety or ours.
— Pavan Sharma, bus driver, Deer Park Union Free School District
Our job is to keep the students safe. Anything else that ca” be done to hold drivers accountable will help us do our job.
”
“A lot of the time, people are on their phones, and they’re just not paying attention, which is why we need this bus safety legislation.
By Deer Park High School, the buses are lined up with their “reds” on, and [drivers] picking up the kids zoom right by. That’s really dangerous because some of the kids
walk between the buses and may not be seen in time for drivers to stop. I don’t think the parents realize how dangerous the situation is because they’re at the school and not on one of the back roads.
— Dennis Walker, bus driver and CSEA Unit Executive Vice President, Deer Park Union Free School District
“I’m glad our union has advocated for [bus safety cameras] being made a law. I think if people know they’re being recorded by these exterior cameras, it will
make a difference when it comes
to illegal passing. We have a
huge problem on one of our state highways, Route 22. People think because it’s a divided highway, they don’t have to stop, but that’s not
”
se cameras is going
true. Having the” to be a big help.
— Paul Stoveland, bus driver
October 2019
‘We have so many near misses’
Bus drivers applaud new bus safety
“I approached the bus stop, with my yellow lights on, door. The red lights came on and the stop sign came ou I looked into the mirror on my left and saw a car flyin was attempting to cross in front of the bus to the other s which put the student directly in the path of the oncomi
I blared the horn, signaling the student to stop, and th by, running through the stop sign. The student looked at it was safe, and the student continued to walk across th at least one or two cars blowing through my red lights o
— Karen Schroeter, bus driver, Kings Park
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