D
ata released prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic showed in the decade leading into 2019,
31 children were dragged by a school bus after becoming stuck in the loading doors. Two students were killed.
While online learning may have kept students off buses after
the onset of the pandemic, students nationwide have resumed in-school learning. With that, the potential exists for an uptick in loading and unloading zone safety incidents. But as indicated by a recent magazine reader survey, few student transporters anticipate one of those incidents occurring when a student becomes stuck in the door. “I can only imagine the emotional trauma that the student,
family, school district, transportation department, and commu- nity feels after the loss of a child, especially when the loss of a child included events that were preventable and resulted in part due to driver rushing, poor door control switch location, and a lack of training on the known hazards of students who have been caught in the entrance doors of school buses,” said Peter Lawrence, who is a senior consultant for the Pupil Transporta- tion Safety Institute (PTSI) after recently retiring from Fairport Central School District in New York as the director of trans- portation. “We in the pupil transportation industry also feel the pain every time we lose a child to a school bus related crash or preventable occurrence like a school bus dragging.” Case in point: Massachusetts student Summer Steele, 9, was
killed in October 2016 after her school bus driver closed the loading doors before the girl completely exited the bus. Steele was dragged a short distance before she fell and was run over by the bus.
The bus driver, who said he thought all children were clear of the bus and was focused on the next scheduled stop when he drove off with the girl stuck in the door, was sentenced to a year in jail after accepting a plea deal. Lawrence, who in 2015 co-authored the only known study on
students dragged by the school bus with Kathleen Furneaux, at the time executive director of the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute, commented that the available statistics reflect only incidents that are self-reported by operators or included in media reports. “Unfortunately, there are many more occurring that go unre-
ported and have the potential to cause injury or loss of life,” he added.
www.stnonline.com 23
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