INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS In Brief


FEBRUARY SCHOOL BUS FATALITIES February was a dark month as five students died


in incidents involving school bus stops or riding the bus. On Feb. 5, a New Orleans teen was shot multiple times and killed while waiting at his bus stop. At this writing there were no leads in the case. Tree fatalities occurred to students who were


running to catch their buses and were ran over in the process. A four-year-old boy in New York was struck by his own bus when his driver did not see him. Two other girls, ages 13 and 14, in Brentwood, Calif., and Macon, Ga., respectively, were struck by passen- ger vehicles while crossing the street to catch their buses. Another student, a 15-year-old in Richardson, Texas, pushed her way through the bus doors after she asked the bus driver to stop. She fell off the bus and was run over by the rear wheels. Tese cases are unfortunate reminders that we need to prepare and train for safety both in and around the bus. In late February, the National School Bus Loading


and Unloading Survey reported that 18 students in 11 states were killed in 2008. Days later on March 2, the Kansas State Department of Education updated the report to remove a fatality in Illinois that was de- termined to have occurred when a school bus hit and killed a 9-year-old boy who was walking to school.


BUS DRIVERS INSTRUMENTAL IN STOPPING COLORADO SCHOOL SHOOTER Tanks to the heroics of a middle school math


teacher assisted by bus drivers and other school staff, there were no fatalities when a gunman opened fire as students were leaving Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colo., on Feb. 24. As students filed out of the building to their waiting school buses and par- ents, suspect Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood opened fire on students with a high-powered hunting rifle. Eastwood shot two students, one in the arm and one in the chest, before he was tackled and disarmed by math teacher Dr. David Benke. Bus driver Steve Pot- ter, along with several other school staff members and parents, rushed to help Benke, and the group kept Eastwood subdued until authorities arrived. Eastwood was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Deer Creek Middle School is just minutes away from Columbine High School, where two students went on a shooting spree in 1999, kill- ing 12 classmates and one teacher.


14 School Transportation News Magazine April 2010 First Observer Now in Second Year


TSA’S SCHOOL BUS FIRST OBSERVER TRAINING MODULE WAS RELEASED LAST APRIL, AND AT THE END OF 2009 THERE WERE ABOUT 20,000 SCHOOL PROGRAM MEMBERS LISTED IN THE FIRST OBSERVER DATABASE.


•


11,348 are certified First Observer members who have complet- ed the First Observer training class.


• 638 completed the train-the-trainer program. •


after being trained. •


First Observer has also trained about 600 people via its Web site, firstobserver.com, with the majority of these being school bus drivers.


CONNECTICUT MOVES FORWARD WITH SEAT BELTS Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she will place


$2 million on the state’s next Bond Commission Agenda to purchase 40 new school buses,


likely small


Type As, equipped with passenger restraint systems for the state’s vo- cational technical school system. A seat belt proposal introduced


in the state legislature following the Jan. 9 school bus crash that killed Rocky Hill teen Vikas Parikh would require seat belts to be installed on all schools buses by January 2011. If passed into law, Connecticut would become the seventh state to require seat belts on buses, but only the third to require the three-point seat belts. Four Connecticut districts already


have buses equipped with seat belts, but those districts do not require that the students wear them be- cause the requirement would be difficult to enforce. Te Connecticut School Transportation Association said any law should not hold the driver, school district, bus company or OEM liable if a student is hurt or killed and didn’t buckle up. Cliff Gibson, chief operating offi-


cer of Dattco Inc., estimated that the cost of retrofitting older buses with lap-and-shoulder belts would cost $20,000 to $22,000 per bus, and about $15,000 per vehicle on new buses.


FEDS RELEASE STATE RESTRAINT AND SECLUSION REPORT Following a letter


First Observer anticipates that each school bus trainer will train at least another 50 to 100 school bus drivers within 12 months


sent by Sec-


retary of Education Arne Duncan, information was recently published regarding how each state handles its student seclusion and restraint poli- cies. Te data, which was collected by the DOE’s regional comprehen- sive centers, has been reviewed and verified by each state’s chief state school officer or a representative. But, the report does not deny the appropriate use of restraints during transportation, as in the use of child safety restraint systems. Tis stance was recently echoed in a piece of proposed federal legislation. Te report includes information


on each state’s statutes, regulations, policies and guidance addressing se- clusion and restraint, as well as any of the aforementioned that are currently being developed or revised. Te in- formation provided could help push more states to discuss the need for proper training in relation to school transportation and how to safely and securely transport children.


A full report is available online at www.stnonline.com/go/534.


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