Date: Fri 10-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

Kelly-bus-safety-police

Full Text:

A Public Reminder: Bus Safety Is Everyone's Business

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

"Get that license plate number, quick. Did you see that? He drove right

through my flashing red lights!" Mary Kelly, transportation director, yelled

across the Hawley School parking lot.

The Newtown High School student, who had just driven past the bus while

children were disembarking, parked his car and got out.

With a puzzled look on his face he said, "What did I do? Why is everyone

looking at me? I'm just bringing flowers to the school."

Once he realized he'd passed the bus when its lights were flashing, he

apologized.

Mrs Kelly told him that his license plate number would be turned in to the

Department of Motor Vehicles. If his plate number is turned in again, he will

have to pay a hefty $450 fine.

Mrs Kelly said it is surprising how many local drivers break the school bus

law, many unintentionally.

State law requires motorists approaching or following a school bus to stop at

least ten feet from the bus whenever the alternating red lights are flashing.

Motorists need to be reminded that the law also applies to standing school

buses in school yards with the red lights on.

Mrs Kelly wrote that "the Newtown school bus owner/operators transport 4,219

students to and from Newtown schools every day. That provides 4,219

opportunities twice each day for a child to be hit by a motorist passing a

stopped school bus, either on the road or at school. It is only due to our

alert bus drivers that we have not had a tragedy."

On April 2, Newtown joined with other towns and cities across Connecticut in

Operation Safe Stop, an educational and enforcement campaign to alert the

motoring public to the dangers of passing stopped school buses picking up or

discharging students.

Working from a list of trouble spots such as Route 34, Berkshire Road, Route

6/25 Mt Pleasant and in school yards where buses are dropping off or picking

up students, police accompanied school buses to catch violators.

No tickets were issued in Newtown that day, only one warning.

Emergency Procedures

In another initiative to safeguard the children of Newtown, Mrs Kelly taught

bus evacuation procedures to the children last week.

She selected children to open the back door of the bus, and to help the

younger children out the back. She called out, "Sit and slide" as each child

got to the back of the bus.

Mrs Kelly understands why kids hesitate.

"You stand there and look down, and it's a long way down," she said. "I want

the kids to slide out one by one, not jump. Kids have a tendency to stall or

to rush, so we have to practice this twice a year."

Two older children stood with their shoulders as handy hand-holds for the

disembarking kids. A third child held the bus door open. Mrs Kelly stood back

a little to see if the kids could follow the procedures on their own.

Mrs Kelly said she wants the children to know they can open the back door and

get off in an emergency, and that older children on the bus can help them.