Utah district revives student bus safety training following fatal accident

WEST JORDAN, Utah — Jordan School District’s elementary school students started out the new year with a hands-on lesson in bus safety last week.

During the month of September, transportation officials and school bus drivers will visit all of the district’s 34 elementary schools to present a short assembly on bus safety. Each assembly will be followed by students going outside to practice getting on and off the bus safely, walking safely between buses and exiting a bus properly in an emergency.

“This is important training that we hope empowers children to be safe on and around our school buses,” the district said in a statement.

The district re-introduced the training for students, after having ended it in 2009 when it split, following an accident in which a 10-year-old student was killed, FOX 13 reports.

In May, Selena Crosby was struck by a bus while crossing the street after getting off another bus, according to the news outlet.  

Elk Meadows Elementary School students learned school bus safety basics, including crossing the road, boarding the bus and how to get off the bus in an emergency. The training also included students who don’t ride the bus to and from school, because, Emily Crane, a parent and teacher at Elk Meadows Elementary School, told FOX 13, even those students will ride a school bus for field trips and school activities, and will sometimes be near the buses.