INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
Yosemite Wildfire Smokes Out Student Transportation Operations in Northern Nevada
WISCONSIN SENATOR WORKS FOR 3-POINT SEAT BELTS ON
NEW SCHOOL BUSES Sen. Tim Cullen of
Wisconsin was working on introducing a bill that would mandate occupant restraints on new school buses in the state at this writing.
Cullen was circulating the language for potential co-sponsors, as the deadline was approaching for other senators to sign on to the potential legislation. The bill is similar to
£ Smoke from the Rim fire (above) could be seen, and felt, at school districts in Nevada and California. In some extreme cases, some students had to stay home due to allergies or asthma. The fire was so significant that it could be seen through satellite imagery (right).
S
moke carried from the enormous Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park had choked transporta-
tion staff and students alike at Nevada and California school districts located to the northeast. Te fire had become the
third-largest wildfire in Cali- fornia at this writing. Te blaze, which investigators determined was sparked by a hunter’s illegal campfire, started on Aug. 17. At this report, the fire had
burned more than 255,000 acres and was 80 percent contained. Full containment was expected on Sept. 20. Satellite imagery showed the immense plume of smoke, and with it carbon monoxide, trav- eling on a path north through Nevada, Idaho and western Montana and into Canada. More
than 4,800 firefighters worked to contain the fire that impacted ev- erything from tourism to school schedules and transportation in cities hundreds of miles away. Wyndy Bates, the opera-
tions lead coordinator at Lyon County School District, east of Reno, Nev., said the district had several cases of parents deciding to transport their own children to school rather than ride the yellow bus. Bates added that some bus drivers and students wore masks aboard buses because of the smoke. Recess was either cancelled or moved indoors the first two weeks. “In some extreme cases, the students have had to stay home because of illness, such as aller- gies and asthma,” she noted. Margo Medeiros, assistant director of transportation for
26 School Transportation News October 2013
Washoe County Schools in Reno, said some drivers had to stay home because of asthma attacks. “I can't wait for (the fire and
smoke) to be over,” she said. “My head hurts by the end of the day if I have to go out much.” Te smoke was also heavy
near Lake Tahoe. Christy Blach, transportation supervisor at Lake Tahoe Unified on the California side, said Aug. 29 was the worst the smoke had been. She added that the smoke was starting to come in “pretty thick,” and she could barely see the mountains out of her office window. Transportation Director
Cathy Denson of nearby Doug- las County School District, which serves the Lake Tahoe area on the Nevada side, said the pollution level was classified as “dangerous.”
a policy he established while a member of the Janesville School Board. Since then, the school district, the only school system in Wisconsin that requires the use of lap and shoulder seat belts on yellow buses, has bought 20 new school buses equipped with three-point restraints.
Only school buses that
are manufactured after the effective date of the bill would be required to have seat belts. School buses already in operation would not have to be retrofitted, which can be costly. The proposal also creates a grant program to help school districts defray the cost of equipping new school buses with seat belts. “The fact that we are
required to wear seat belts in cars, yet allow our children to roll down the road at 55 miles per hour without them is completely outrageous to me,” Cullen said.
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