News
Will New Administration Continue NHTSA Interest in Targeting Illegal Passers?
If David Poag has his way, a South Carolina
program that targets motorists who illegally pass stopped school buses will drive a national campaign being considered at NHTSA. SAVE, short for Stop Arm Violation En-
forcement, started as a pilot program in 2013 at Anderson School District Five near Greenville. Poag, the district’s former operations and routing supervisor, and Director of Transportation Darryl Webb created a website that displays photos of motorists passing the schools buses that were loading and unloading students. South Carolina is one of 15 states nationwide with laws on the books allowing school districts to enter into stop-arm enforcement programs that capture video of offenders, verify the infractions and issue citations. Several other states leave the decision to local districts and municipalities. Te law was passed as a result of Poag and Webb’s work. NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind
said last month during the “Outside the Bus” meeting in Washington D.C. that a national campaign is necessary to educate motorists on the dangers of illegally passing stopped school buses. It would be similar in scope to “Click-it-or-Ticket” to enforce seat belt usage and “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” to warn about the perils of intoxicated driving. Te original request came from NAPT
Executive Director Michael Martin during a presentation to those in attendance on Dec. 1. Poag, who is now operations and routing suerpvisor at Greenville County Schools, said he reached out to NHTSA via email to offer SAVE as a model program. “When the SAVE Campaign was born, I had wild hopes that one day it would become a national campaign,” he said. “I see that being a possibility.”
Tis month, SAVE will be presented at the
Outgoing NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind speaks during the Dec. 1 “Outside the Bus” meeting to discuss how to further reduce school bus fatalities and injuries
South Carolina Association for Pupil Transportation Director’s Meeting. As for a national campaign, Rosekind leaves NHTSA on Jan. 20 as the new administration takes over. It will remain to be seen if it picks up where Rosekind left off, especially amid growing opposition that cites data showing more student deaths occur in the “Danger Zone” at the hand of school buses than illegal passers. ●
QUAL IT Y MAT TERS
16 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2017
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS
Jan17_STN.indb 16
12/20/16 4:50 PM
PHOTO COURTESY OF MAX CHRISTENSEN
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