silient or responsive. In May 2019, a bus that was owned by KC Premier Transportation in Kansas City caught fire with three students on board. No one was injured, but the incident was the latest in a string of problems that were logged against the company by the state. Those problems included numerous safety violations that re- sulted in buses being placed out of service. According to news reports, company owner Ejaz Mahmood attributed his company’s woes to “bad karma.” Later that month, a raid on a Paterson, New Jersey bus company found eight drivers without proper credentials and three other employees with active arrest warrants. Published reports indicated that the Paterson School
District “had issued more than 100 violations” against A-1 Elegant during the 2017-2018 school year. The company’s owner, Shelim Khalique, is the brother of a city council- man. Meanwhile, an internal review by the Atlanta Public Schools found that last spring, 146 of 283 buses missed a monthly inspection that is mandated by the state.
The Community’s Role Experts agreed that the community must be support-
ive if a safety culture is to exist at all. “We work for the public. If the public continuously passes our red lights, then we obviously don’t have the same belief system,” said Harden, who referenced the ongoing concern about illegal passers. “People pass our red lights all the time. Safety starts with the community. It’s not a safety culture if people are blowing their horns or want to pass, simply because it’s not their child crossing the street. We’re try- ing to educate the public and get people informed.” Harden said she thinks the message is being heard—
but student transporters can’t afford to relax. “There are a lot of hot topics, but the directors’ No. 1 concern is getting kids on and off the bus,” she said. “We can have all the strategy in the world, but until our culture adopts our beliefs and values, nothing is going to change.” McKinney agreed, saying the industry must continue to push the message before the public, because motor- ists are acting out of ignorance or misinformation. He said that since the three students were killed in north- ern Indiana last October while crossing a state road to their school bus, transportation directors have been on heightened alert. But motorists have since returned to
See Us At Booth 126
www.stnonline.com 33
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