Students will have new riding buddies on school buses this school year: Deputies with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies have been riding on certain bus routes since the first day of school Aug. 7.
Their work is being funded by a $10,000 grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. Sheriff Scott Southerland applied for the grant after receiving an email from the state.
“That’s exactly what we need. We have a lot of reports from school bus drivers about people passing the stop arm when the stop arm is out. We want our kids to be safe,” Southerland said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Last school year, Brown County Schools bus drivers documented 67 stop arm violations.
“We did not keep track of these the year before, but I can tell you these are definitely on a very alarming increase,” said Brown County Schools Transportation Director Roger Cline.
Southerland said his department has received a pretty steady report of stop arm violations over the years, but that he, too, has noticed an increase lately.
Around $380,000 in federal grant funding was awarded to about 230 Indiana police agencies for “highly visible” traffic enforcement, including speeding, aggressive driving and school bus stop arm violations. The grants will pay for officers’ overtime for the next two months, according to a state press release.
Southerland said the sheriff’s department will be doing increased patrols during the hours school buses are running, mornings and afternoons.
Deputies also will ride buses randomly on routes which the school district identifies as problem areas to help watch for stop arm violations. If an officer witnesses a violation, the officer on the bus will notify others stationed down the road to make a traffic stop.
In May in Brown County, a Michigan man was stopped for passing a school bus that had its stop arm out. Indiana State Police Trooper Matthew Hatchett was riding that bus. In June, that man was charged with a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of up to 180 days in jail and a maximum fine of $1,000.
Cline said the No. 1 problem area in Brown County is State Road 46 West. Other areas where the district often sees stop arm violations are Sweetwater Trail, Peoga Road and State Road 46 East.
“I personally take this very seriously. I try to do for the children here at our school like I want others to do for my grandchildren,” Cline said last week.
“I believe that we need extremely tough penalties. This is a very selfish act that drivers take. (They) have no respect for others or human life, and it quite honestly is the bottom of the barrel in my eyes, to put it nicely.”
Out on the road
In July, a new state law was put into effect that was a direct result of three children being killed after they were struck by a driver who had passed their school bus with its stop arm extended on a highway in northern Indiana.
The new law prohibits children from crossing a highway to get on or off their bus.
The law went into effect after Brown County Schools had settled its contractor bus driver contracts.
During the last few weeks of July, Cline and his department were working to figure out the best way to reroute buses because of the two highways that students had been allowed to cross before: state roads 135 South and 45.
The new routes are an effort to eliminate those crossings on highways.
Redrawing the routes resulted in the district hiring more bus drivers and creating two more routes.
“I believe this is a great idea and will save children’s lives,” Cline said about the new law.
“We are continually looking at drop-off and pick-up sites for safety and asking our drivers to monitor these throughout the year and notify myself so that we may look at a safer alternative.”
Students are allowed to cross the road in front of a bus on county roads, but Cline said drivers try to drop off children on the right side, where the door is, when they can.
“Our drivers work with students and teach them bus safety when entering and exiting the bus,” Cline said.
The Indiana Department of Education’s director of school transportation also conducted training sessions here and looked at roads and intersections to offer advice on making bus routes safer, Cline said.
Last spring, the Indiana State Police asked school bus drivers throughout Indiana to document every stop arm violation on April 23 during morning and afternoon routes. Brown County Schools did participate in that count, but no stop arm violations were reported that day.
Across Indiana, though, 2,530 violations were reported. Cline said 70 of those were drivers passing a bus on the right side of the road.
If a student misses the bus, Cline encourages parents to never drive up behind a bus at a stop to let students out of their car and onto the bus. “This is the easiest way to get run over,” he said.
“Drivers have a lot of things to watch, like student interaction and distractions along with narrow roads, other drivers speeding, cellphones and such. Students should never be dropped off to catch a bus. Drivers may not see them.”
Once at school
Once buses arrive at school, principals and staff monitor the students as they load and unload every day. During this time, bus drivers must remain in their bus with the motor off and parking break set, Cline said.
Last school year, protective bollards were installed in front of all of the school buildings to help prevent bus-pedestrian accidents.
Other safety measures were taken, too. At Sprunica Elementary School, buses now line up in three rows instead of in an angled line like before.
“It’s more compact. It keeps them way away from here (the drop-off area). With this lineup, our two small buses can come in at the same time where there wasn’t room for that (before),” said Principal Shane Killinger, who was helping to direct the process on the first day of school.
Last fall break, a new walkway was painted that extends from the sidewalk in front of Sprunica to the parking lot where parents drop off or pick up students.
“The parents and kids did such a nice job. They were lined up in that walkway (this morning),” Killinger said on the first day of school.
He said the school also worked with the sheriff’s department to post speed limit signs in the area to get drivers to slow down, and officers have ticketed people.
“Slow down and watch for them,” Sheriff Southerland said.
“We can’t trust kids to make good decisions when walking around the edge of the road and traffic. As adults, we watch out for them.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Stop arm rules” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Two-lane roads
If a school bus stops on a two-lane road and the red flashing lights are activated and the stop arm is extended, all drivers must stop.
Multi-lane roads with NO barrier between lanes
When a school bus stops on a multi-lane road without a barrier, and the red flashing lights are activated and the stop arm is extended, all drivers must stop.
Multi-lane road with a grassy and/or concrete barrier
When a school bus stops and the red flashing lights are activated and the stop arm is extended, only vehicles behind the bus must stop. Vehicles that are approaching from the opposite side are not required to stop.
Source: Indiana Department of Transportation
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