Back in session school bus safety

Combat Edge, Sept, 2004 by Frank Altamura, Anton Komatz

The "101 Critical Days of Summer" are now over, and life is getting back to a daily routine that will be followed for the next 9 months. The carefree days of summer are now replaced with the challenges of a new school year. That's right--SCHOOL IS OPEN! Our children will be exposed to a whole new set of hazards. What can we do to help them? As parents, it's our responsibility to teach our children how to be aware of these hazards and avoid them.

Pedestrian Safety. To keep our children from becoming a pedestrian statistic, we need to find safe routes to school. This means a route with slower traffic, more crosswalks, more crossing guards, and more sidewalks with wider surfaces and unobstructed views. Most of all, we need to teach our children how to get to and from school safely. To accomplish this, parents need to teach traffic safety rules at an early age.

Small Children Are Hard To See. Children must also be seen to be safe. Children are less visible because they are smaller than other pedestrians. Wearing brightly colored clothing is one way of making it easier for drivers to see young pedestrians during the day. After dark, children should carry a flashlight or wear special reflective material on their clothing, or book bags. It is also important to stop, look, and listen before crossing the road at night.

It is important to keep in mind that children ARE NOT small adults. Until a child is at least 10 or 11 years old, he or she won't have the skills to handle traffic. Because children are short, it is also difficult for them to see motorists and for motorists to see them. Because their peripheral vision is approximately one-third narrower than an adult's, children can't see a car approaching as soon as an adult. Children also have difficulty judging a car's speed and distance, and they often think that if they can see a motorist, the motorist can see them.

School Bus Safety

Growing up, I was a "Country Kid." "Country Kid" was the name that the kids who lived in the city of Superior, Wisconsin, used to describe those of us who were bused to school each day. I would get on the bus at 6 a.m. for the 1 hour and 40 minute ride and wouldn't return home until half past 4 in the afternoon. Snow and ice made for hazardous driving during the winter months and it was always cold, but in 9 years of riding a bus I never experienced a traffic accident or saw someone get hurt riding or getting off of the bus. That fact is a testament to the skills of my drivers, my parents and to me and my fellow students for knowing the rules and following them.

We knew that the bus was a privilege, not a right, and could be taken away for misbehaving. We were told that the drivers had the responsibility to drive us safely to and from school and not to distract them because it could cause an accident. Drivers also wielded the authority to take away bus privileges for not following the rules and often did. I can remember Mr. Harnstrom (who looked like Vince Lombardi and just as strict) stop the bus and discipline a student, and then pull their privileges on the spot when they didn't comply. No false threats, no second warnings, just swift action. No one wanted to tell their parents that you needed them to drive 50 miles roundtrip to and from school for a week or more because you couldn't behave on the bus; and that kept us in line, and safe.

Children do not drive cars or buses, and have no concept of the amount of responsibility or concentration it takes to drive them safely from "Point A to B." As parents, we need to teach students that a distracted bus driver isn't the only one who is in danger during a bus accident. Children don't realize that yelling, fighting, moving from seat to seat, yelling out of windows and lifting up on the handle of the emergency exit high enough to make the buzzer go off is distracting to the driver, and puts them in danger. Drivers can't concentrate on driving when riders don't behave, and if they are constantly disciplining students or keeping an eye on them in the bus mirror, then their eyes aren't watching the road. I recently chaperoned a middle school field trip and put up with the yelling, and "jumping seats" for about 5 minutes until I realized that the driver was spending more time disciplining than driving, before restoring order myself. The driver thanked me and the students didn't because I enforced the rules, and was accused of "ruining their fun," but we arrived in one piece.

Following the tips below will help your children be safe bus riders and you to be safer drivers when school buses are out on the roads.

Safety Rules for Children

* Arrive at bus stop at least 5 minutes early.

* Stand at least five giant steps (10 feet) away from the edge of the road.

* Wait until the bus stops, the door opens, and the driver says it's okay before stepping on the bus.

* Be careful that clothing with drawstrings and book bags with straps or dangling objects do not get caught in the handrail or door when exiting the bus.