How to resolve AdBlock issue? This week is National School Bus Safety Week, and officials are asking drivers to be extra careful around schools and watch for children boarding or exiting a bus.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, students are about 70 times more likely to get to school safely when taking a bus instead of traveling by car.
Agencies such as the California Highway Patrol and the California Office of Traffic Safety are supporting efforts to promote the safety of children riding a school bus.
“The CHP’s oversight of school bus safety and enforcement is something we take very seriously each day,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “Please do your part and join the Highway Patrol in our efforts to help keep children safe by being alert when approaching school buses and bus stops.”
“Children should feel safe getting onto or off the bus,” OTS Director Barbara Rooney said. “Drivers should always be watching for people walking or on a bike, but especially around schools and when children are at a bus stop.”
School bus safety is a high priority for the CHP, which launched the “Vehicles Illegally Passing a School Bus,” or VIPS, enforcement project in 2017. The OTS provides funding for the program.
While riding the bus is the safest way for children to get to and from school, many drivers illegally pass school buses that are stopped with their red lights on.
According to a 2016 one-day survey of 137 school districts and nine school bus contractors, more than 26,000 drivers did not stop for a bus loading or unloading children.
California law requires drivers to stop in both directions when a school bus has flashing red lights on. A school bus will turn on flashing yellow lights to warn drivers to slow down and be ready to stop. Drivers must stay stopped until the red lights are off.
If the school bus is on a street with a raised or center median, or with more than two lanes in each direction, drivers on the opposite side of the street do not need to stop.
Drivers who illegally pass a bus face up to a $1,000 fine and could have their license suspended for one year.
During VIPS enforcement operations, CHP officers ride on school buses and patrol bus routes, watching for vehicles that do not stop for flashing red school bus lights. The VIPS project also encourages people to report drivers who illegally pass a school bus.
Since the implementation of VIPS, more than 150 statewide school zone safety operations have been conducted, resulting in nearly 1,200 citations being issued.
School buses are the most regulated vehicles on the road, designed to be safer than passenger vehicles. The flashing red lights and stop-sign arms are crucial features.
More than 50,000 certified school bus drivers transport more than one million students each year in California, traveling approximately 243.5 million miles.
To help ensure the safety of the state’s students, the CHP inspects more than 20,000 school buses each year; California has not had a pupil passenger fatality since 1995.
Among Lake County’s six school districts, there are approximately 80 bus drivers, according to Officer Joe Wind of the Clear Lake Area office of the CHP.
The drivers, who usually start the hiring process at the school district level, are trained in the classroom and behind-the-wheel in a minimum 40-hour course by instructors who are certified to instruct by the State Department of Education, Wind said.
During this time – if not before – the driver applies with CHP to receive a special certificate, which is issued from the California Department of Motor Vehicles through the CHP.
“During this process, the driver is required to have, or be able to obtain, a Class B driver's license or permit with a passenger endorsement, a current medical examination report and certificate, have a current driving history report, as well as have a fingerprint submission for criminal background review,” Wind said.
Once they have fulfilled those requirements, Wind said the drivers must successfully pass a written test, first aid test, and a pre-trip inspection and driving test, which is overseen by the CHP.
“They can then be issued the special certificate to drive a school bus, and must renew it every five years,” Wind said. “The driver continuously receives training during this renewal period. The special certificate renewal testing process has the same criteria.”
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