By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Those motorists who routinely travel area roadways are already keenly aware of the new school year as they again share the local roadways with school buses. That interaction is a major responsibility and a major concern for many, including the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
“I’m passionate about it,” said Lt. Scott Rike, commander at the Bucyrus Post of the Highway Patrol, who noted his own children ride a school bus. “I just don’t want a catastrophe to happen because someone was on their cell phone and something happens to a kid.”
Statewide, there were 3,892 traffic crashes involving school buses from 2013 through 2015. Here in Crawford County there were eight such accidents and two more in Wyandot County during that span.
There were no fatal crashes in which a school bus was involved in 2015 in Ohio, but in 2013 and 2014 combined there were nine accounting for 12 fatalities. None of those 12 people who died were on a school bus at the time of the accident.
School Bus Safety Week is traditionally the second week in October.
“We get on the bus and ride with a trooper in the rear,” Rike said.
Rike said the troopers routinely spot violations that school bus drivers don’t see. Last year the Bucyrus Post placed troopers on buses from the Buckeye Central and Colonel Crawford districts. This year they hope to be on buses from Wynford and possibly the Bucyrus or Crestline districts.
“I think the schools do a phenomenal job training their bus drivers,” Rike said, noting his own trips on a school bus as a trooper have emphasized how difficult it is to operate the large vehicles with so many young passengers on board.
“School bus drivers have a big responsibility,” Rike said with a smile while describing all that goes on during a typical trip to or from school. “It’s a three-ring circus.”
He emphasized that safety during the trip isn’t the sole responsibility of the school district, the bus driver or the Highway Patrol.
“Parents need to stress the time on a school bus isn’t fun time.”
One of the areas of responsibility for the Highway Patrol is school bus inspections and the Patrol has been busy inspecting all area school buses, church buses and any similar vehicle that people “get on and off.”
Those inspections happen twice a year, now and typically in the late winter or early spring. Highway Patrol personnel were responsible for 132,821 such inspections in the three years from 2013 through 2015, more than 44,000 per year.
The other, and perhaps most obvious, role the Highway Patrol has in school bus safety is traffic enforcement. The most glaring violation is failing to stop for a school bus with flashing lights during the pick-up and drop-off of passengers.
“Do the right thing,” Rike said. “When you see the yellow lights come on – stop.”
In the latest complete three-year study, 4,043 drivers were cited and convicted of failing to stop for a school bus. Of those, the Highway Patrol wrote 1,542 citations.
Lest drivers think they have gotten away without a ticket when they violated the law regarding stopping for school buses, or other violations, because no police, Sheriff’s or Patrol vehicles were present at the time – they could be in for a surprise visit.
School bus drivers can report a driver’s violation to local law enforcement who then investigate the complaint. If the vehicle in question and the driver can be positively identified, they can, and most likely will, be cited.
“We don’t have to have probable cause,” said Rike. “You do not have to be witnessed by a police officer to get a citation for a school bus violation.”
Rike was careful to credit the good working relationships the Patrol has not only with the local school districts, but the Sheriff’s Office and various city police departments as well.
He described those coordinated efforts as a team approach with but one goal in mind: student safety.
“These superintendents really take their job seriously when it comes to school safety.”