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School Transportation News Magazine is published by STN Media Group
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Publisher Tony Corpin
Editor in Chief Ryan Gray
LinkedIn: “How do you test driver fitness?”
Our district follows up annually with the DOT physical for drivers and monitors. People seem reluctant to share anything happening to them that might in some way jeopardize their job. But at the same time it is our responsibility to make sure every driver and monitor is physically capable of evacuating a bus, see- ing that all students have been removed. For example, we use the “Medical Examination Report for Commercial Driver Fitness Determination,” 49 CFR 391.43(h). It has to be changed at the federal level for the safety of all, but as of now, that is what we have. We have put in some items regarding the physical ability to evacuate a bus and the ability to get up and down the aisle of the
bus, etc., which have never been addressed on the “fitness” form. Jim Humphreys, Director of Transportation Duncanville (Texas) ISD
I have seen 400-plus-pound drivers pass that physical, yet they take five minutes to get to the back of the bus (problems fitting between the seats). So, on paper they pass, yet in an actual emergency there is no way they are fit to evacuate that bus. Tere needs to be something with more bite. And if you determine on your own to dismiss them, after a physician states they are fit, you
face legal lawsuits. ADA protects those who are obese. Kyle Stanchfield, Terminal Manager Johnson School Bus Service, Sheboygan, Wis.
Our company does an agility test yearly to make sure our bus drivers can do what is required of them. We have to sit in our seat, and when time starts, we have to go up and down the stairs three times, touching the ground with both feet within 30 seconds. We have to be able to unbuckle from our seat and get to the back of the bus and sit down to exit within 20 seconds; open and close the door so many times, and be able to pull 100 pounds of dead weight 100 feet within, I believe 30, seconds. Tere are
tests out there your company could use and modify to your liking. Brenda Bowshier Collier, School Bus Driver First Student, Dayton, Ohio
In most states, you would be within your rights to ask your physician who conducts the physicals, to add certain criteria to the standard physical. Our drivers must be able to hop onto the table without assistance. Te table is set at 36 inches from the ground, simulating the back of bus. Tey are also required to lift 50 pounds of dead weight at the physical site. Tere are many other items you could incorporate. I agree with the others, there
certainly needs to be a stricter standard of physical fitness. Vicki Gliha, Transportation Supervisor Solon (Ohio) Community Schools
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD:
Denny Coughlin, Consultant; Judith Dupille, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles; Dick Fischer, Trans-Consult; Ron Love, Delaware DOE; Randy McLerran, National Bus Sales; Pete Meslin, Newport-Mesa Unified; Nancy Netherland, Migrant- Seasonal Head Start; Marshall Casey, Consultant; Alexandra Robinson, NAPT; Launi Schmutz, Washington County
Schools
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10 School Transportation News July 2013
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