is that certificates of insurance are critical. From our perspective, we don’t want a school district held liable if there’s an accident involving a school bus driven auton- omously. If there’s a breakdown of technology, we want the vendor to be held financially responsible.” Leetch said that a certificate of insurance allows a
vendor to name a school district or municipality as an additional name on a policy. “And if there is an accident, it means that a party will sue the vendor first and can only reach the school district if the vendor’s limits are exceeded,” he added.
Risk Related to School Bus Drivers While school bus drivers are fallible, and they might
make ill-informed decisions that introduce risk to student passengers, incidents can often occur at no fault of the driver. Regardless, the flag of liability and accountability rises. So who is liable and how is such risk underwritten? It is first most important to look at the systemic issues that prevail when it comes to drivers and driver selection.
“Driver selection has become a major issue that under- writers are worried about,” explained Leetch, referring to the ongoing bus driver shortage. “We are having a hard time making sure that we have the right people driving school buses. That is the most critical (area), and it is a problem across the industry.” Leetch, like many who read and hear of the problems
that originate with school bus drivers, said he fears that school districts and municipalities are relaxing standards to find drivers. “That can result in someone [being] in the driver’s seat who doesn’t have a good driving record, or [who] just barely passed a background check or a drug test,” he said. “It’s a major problem. But the liability doesn’t go away.” Linda Neff is the director of school transportation for
Keystone Insurers Group in Northumberland, Pennsyl- vania, and has been underwriting school bus risk for over 20 years. She pointed out that most school bus driv- ers are not problematic and actually reduce much of the risk that is tied to student transportation operations. “The majority of drivers are hard-working, well-
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40 School Transportation News • JUNE 2019
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