A few days after school began last fall, I was standing on the side of a busy two-lane road in Silver Spring, waiting for my sixth-grade daughter to get off the bus on the other side of the street.
To my dismay, I watched as she hopped off and proceeded to cross the street behind the bus, nowhere near the cement divider built into the roadway to provide safe passage in front of the bus.
Luckily, cars coming in both directions had stopped—as required by state law— and she crossed safely.
But that’s not always the case, as witnessed by Woodlin Elementary School parent Andrew Cohen, who recently caught on videotape (see video below) three drivers whizzing pass a Montgomery County Public Schools bus stopped at Cameron Street and Second Avenue in Silver Spring in January.
Maybe these drivers don’t see the lights or are too distracted by talking on a cell phone or just doesn’t know it’s against state law to pass a stopped school bus. The only time a car can pass a stopped school bus is when the car is traveling on the opposite side of a four-lane highway divided by a median.
But none of that matters if a driver hits a kid who’s crossing the road to board the bus or heading home after getting off.
According to the Maryland State Highway Administration, an average of 19 school-aged passengers are killed nationwide each year getting off and on a school bus. Most are between 5 and 7 years old. Some are killed by passing drivers, some are hit by the bus itself.
So what can we do to keep students safe?
The County Council is considering legislation that would require installing cameras on school buses to catch drivers who overtake a stopped bus.
Violators would be fined $250.
The council’s public safety committee approved the legislation Feb. 2 and the council is expected to vote next month.
Catching violators is all well and good, but that’s after the fact. With the increasing distraction of drivers, we also need to better educate our kids about how to be safe.
When I asked my daughter why she’d gone behind the bus, she said she’d thought it was safer than crossing in front. Needless to say, I set her straight and she’s used the crosswalk ever since.
According to the State Highway Administration, most kids are hit when they are in the danger zone—that’s the 10 feet surrounding all sides of a bus. Kids should stay 10 feet away from the bus and never walk behind it, and they should take five giant steps in front of the bus before crossing so they can be seen by the driver, says the SHA website.
Here are some more safety tips from the website:
- When getting on the bus, kids should stay away from the danger zone and wait for the driver’s signal.
- When getting off the bus, they should look before stepping off to be sure that no cars are passing on the shoulder.
- Kids should look left-right-left when coming to the edge of the bus to make sure traffic is stopped and keep watching traffic when crossing.
- Make sure to tell kids that if they drop something near the bus, they should tell the driver. They shouldn’t ever try to pick up what they’ve dropped because the driver may not be able to see them.
Watch the video from Woodlin Elementary School parent Andrew Cohen below:
