INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS


Kansas State Director and Industry Veteran Retires After more than


24 years in student transportation,


Larry Larry Bluthardt


Bluthardt retired this past summer because he said his health is lim- iting his ability to travel and conduct training. “I used to enjoy pack-


ing a suitcase and getting in the state car and traveling, checking into a hotel, getting up early and doing a class or pre- sentation,” he said, adding that it became too difficult to talk or stand for long. “I had to take a hard look at everything and had a window of opportunity to retire.” Bluthardt entered the student transpor-


tation industry in May 1988 when he was hired by the Kansas Department of Trans- portation (KDOT) as a safety specialist to supervise first aid, CPR and defensive driving training for school bus drivers and driver trainers. His responsibilities were moved to the Kansas State Department of


Education (KSDE) School Bus Safety Unit in the mid-1990s. He also supervised the annual National


School Bus Loading & Unloading Survey, which he said Wilma Crabtree of


the


KSDE School Bus Safety Unit will conduct this year. Te survey is entering its 43rd consecutive year of reporting student fa- talities at the school bus stop. Industry consultant Dick Fischer, a re-


tired school transportation director and “father” of School Bus Safety Week, said Bluthardt was instrumental in keeping the loading and unloading survey going strong. Fischer said Bluthardt refined the survey to better report student fatalities and, as a result, improve driver training. “He’s going to be well missed within the


industry,” said Fischer. “He’s always had time for people to ask questions, and he would get them good answers.” Bluthardt noted the KSDE would like-


ly wait until this winter to name a new state director.


NHTSA Reports on Student Fatalities,


Distracted Driving Deaths After releasing updated traffic statistics over the summer, NHTSA said


the average number of average student fatalities in school bus crashes remain six per year with another 12 student pedestrian deaths occurring outside the bus. NHTSA updated its report “School Transportation- Related Crashes” to cover incidents recorded from 2001 through 2010. Of the 363,839 crashes in that period, NHTSA noted that nearly 3.5


percent, or 1,236 crashes, were classified as related to school trans- portation. Overall, 123 students under age 19 died in such crashes. In September, a Nebraska girl and teenaged boy were killed when


a semitrailer collided with their school bus, and two female students were killed at their bus stops. An 11-year-old girl perished in Texas City, Texas, after being struck by a big rig, while a 7-year-old was struck by a school bus in a rural Arkansas town with no streetlights while it was dark outside. Michael Martin, executive director of NAPT, told STN he is trou-


bled about the deaths and expressed concern about whether driver distraction may have played a part in the incidents. Meanwhile, NHTSA released 2010 crash data showing that 3,092


people were killed and 416,000 were injured in crashes caused by distracted driving. NHTSA said 9 percent of the total 30,196 fatal crashes nationwide were a result of distraction, according to its Fa- tality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Tirteen percent, or 408, of distraction-related fatalities occurred in crashes in which at least one of the drivers was using a cellphone.


16 School Transportation News Magazine November 2012


Jim Schwartzman, president of the


Kansas State Pupil Transportation Association, said he considered Bluthardt to be “Mr. School Bus” within the state and urged the next state director to continue the National Loading and Unloading Survey. Bluthardt said he will miss mostly his


industry colleagues and attending nation- al shows. Yet, Schwartzman already has extended a guest invitation to next sum- mer’s conference. “I really, really enjoyed going to NAPT


and NASDPTS national meetings. It was an education, very informative and a lot of fun to meet other state directors,” Blu- thardt added. His service began in 1969 as a police of-


ficer in Manhattan, Kan. In the late 1970s, he moved to the Kansas State Law En- forcement Academy, where he was a crash investigation coordinator and later a certi- fied state police instructor before moving on to the KDOT.


Hundreds of Buses Fail Inspections


in Massachusetts, Ohio Large numbers of yellow buses flunked safety inspections


and were placed out of service in Massachusetts and north- east Ohio in September, but repairs and re-inspections were made soon after. Transportation Director Jeffrey Tatro of Wareham (Mass.)


School District, where 15 percent of buses were taken off the road, told STN that most vehicles with out-of-service viola- tions were repaired and re-inspected on the same day. Te state Registry of Motor Vehicles inspects every school bus at least three times a year. An out-of-service school bus cannot be driven at all until it is fixed. “No routes were disrupted because we did have backup


vehicles,” said Tatro. “Te problems found ranged from an oil indicator light being burnt out in the dash panel to a brake line that did burst during the panic stop test.” Kathy Kiehl, director of transportation for Akron City


Schools, said the Highway Patrol found various violations in 46 of their 89 buses, and 35 had out-of-service violations such as exhaust leaks and air-brake chamber distance difference. Te state Highway Patrol conducts all inspections, includ-


ing annual back-to-school inspections and unannounced spot inspections twice a year, said a Department of Educa- tion spokesman. But school districts that conduct their own inspections remains “a matter of local control,” he said.


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