The School System Warns:

Obey School Bus Stoplights!

By Jeff White

Mary Kelly couldn’t believe it.

The school system’s director of transportation was in the process of conducting a school bus evacuation drill at Hawley Elementary School Monday morning when two cars drove through the flashing red lights and passed students exiting the backs of buses. Because she was busy with the evacuation, Mrs Kelly said that she was unable to get the vehicles’ license plate numbers.

Mrs Kelly’s amazement was compounded when she considered that the incident took place on a morning a scant few days after National School Bus Safety Week (NSBW).

Last Thursday, the Newtown school system took part in NSBW by participating in Operation Safe Stop, a statewide initiative meant to crack down on motor vehicle drivers who ignore school bus stoplights. Throughout the day, police cruisers and unmarked patrol cars monitored major bus routes, staked out school parking lots and, at times, followed directly behind school buses, all in an effort to strictly enforce school bus safety laws.

It happens often enough, Mary Kelly said this week: drivers might be busy adjusting the radio, talking on a cellular phone, or just not paying attention, and before they know it they are passing a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing.

Mrs Kelly can also remember some “close calls” when cars have come dangerously close to hitting a child who is crossing the street after exiting a bus.

Some of the worse areas for such violations are Church Hill Road, Main Street, and Route 34, Mrs Kelly explained. But perhaps where children are most at risk to the dangers of negligent cars are in their own schools’ parking lots, when they are exiting their buses to start their day, or when they are hopping back on them for the journey home. Many people do not realize that it is illegal to pass a school bus in a parking lot when the red lights are flashing.

Mrs Kelly reported this week that there were no arrests made last Thursday during Operation Safe Stop, though no doubt drivers noticed the heavier-than-usual police presence during the procession of buses pouring out of the town’s schools that afternoon.

“The police effort was outstanding,” Mrs Kelly said. “Their cooperation has always been tremendous. The big message that we got out to everyone is not to pass the lights.”

Police can levy a $400 fine to drivers who fail to stop for school bus lights.

“We always partake in [Operation Safe Stop] because we feel the more education we can give to the motorist, the more knowledge that is out there, the more safety we can give to our children,” Mrs Kelly said.

Operation Safe Stop is just one activity the school system participates in to ensure the safety of its students on their way to and from school. Throughout the year, each school in the district participates in two bus evacuation drills, to help teach students how to open the back doors of buses and help their fellow students out during an emergency. The last evacuation of the year is scheduled for the high school next Tuesday.

And as far as remembering the importance of obeying school bus signals, Mary Kelly has a simple phrase she would like to see in every driver’s vocabulary: “If the red lights are flashing, no passing.”