News
Latest NASDPTS Survey Finds No Change in Illegal Passing Rates
WRITTEN BY CLAUDIA NEWTON |
CLAUDIA@STNONLINE.COM A
n annual survey conducted by the NASDPTS over the past year found that rates of illegal school bus passing remained virtually unchanged not only during the past school year, but also the previous six.
In the voluntary survey, 29 states and Washington, D.C., each
reported the number of illegal passes recorded by more than 104,000 participating school bus drivers on a single day. Te total number of recorded violations came out to 77,972.
Half of these instances occurred during afternoon or evening routes, and 46 percent occurred during morning hours. Fifty-nine percent of the illegal passes came from oncoming traffic and 41 percent from drivers who overtook the bus from be- hind. Over 97 percent passed on the left side of the bus but almost 2,000 drivers passed on the right, the side children use to get on and off the bus.
Tese numbers have remained steady since the NASDPTS sur-
vey was first conducted in 2011, with around 30 states reporting about 75,000 violations each year. Based on these numbers, NAS- DPTS estimates a yearly figure of 13 to 14 million motorists who put schoolchildren in danger by illegal school bus passing. All 50 states criminalize passing a school bus that signals its
red lights, stop arm deployed and stopped to pick up or drop off children. Some states do not specifically mention a federally mandated stop arm in laws prohibiting the overtaking of a stopped school bus, but most do refer to the bus’ eight-way warning sys- tems. Some states allow opposing traffic on a multi-lane road with a painted or physical median to continue driving while all traffic behind the bus must come to a complete stop. In a 1997 survey, the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- tration (NHTSA) found that bus drivers considered illegal school bus passing their school the most dangerous behavior another motorist could engage in, even more so than crossing railroad tracks with the stop signal activated, racing on the road, running a stop sign or speeding. “While the number of actual crashes caused by this violation is
low, the potential for injury or death is high,” revealed NHTSA. NHTSA identified three main reasons for why this epidemic is not diminishing. It said motorists disobey the laws out of igno- rance or disregard. It also found that bus drivers or police may not report violations, or may under-report them, due to lack of infor- mation, motivation, procedures or a baseline standard. NHTSA concluded that some law enforcement officers and courts fail to penalize offenders because of personal misgivings or difficulties in securing convictions. Recent efforts to curb the growth of illegal passing include utilizing cameras on stop arms and imposing heavier fines on illegal passers. Per the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states, Utah being the most recent in May, have passed legislation allowing
22 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2017
cameras to be mounted on school buses in order to assist in the iden- tification and penalizing of motorists who break these laws. Some school districts have also developed and implemented their own stop arm camera programs without explicit state regulation. Elsewhere, several awareness and education programs have been instituted at the state or district levels. Austin Independent School District in Texas started putting stop- arm cameras on its school buses in 2015, but Transportation Direc- tor Kris Hafezizadeh told STN that the decrease in illegal passing he hoped for has “unfortunately not yet” occurred. He said the program the district is using to combat this crime includes “public awareness, not using cell phones, law enforcement and stop arm cameras.” John Franklin, director of transportation for Atlanta Public Schools, shared that stop-arm cameras have decreased illegal pass- ing in his district, and that further reduction will be a group effort that includes “continual education of motorists, bus operators who practice solid stop techniques and the stop arm cameras…ensuring that motorists are compliant with the law.” Derek Graham, a past-president of NASDPTS and a chief archi- tect of the annual survey as well as retired state director for North Carolina, said he sees legal actions (such as fines) to be effective in curbing the situation. “For each fine issued, that person will be upset and complain to their friends and, maybe, think about the seriousness of the offense,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s not about rais- ing revenue from fines or making money for a camera company— it’s about changing behavior. And maybe those survey numbers can actually come down.”
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