Measure Would Create Statewide Policy

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill that would require school committees statewide to create a transportation policy for overnight trips sponsored by schools. The measure would also require the state board of education to draft a model policy based on recommendations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. The bill was pushed by parents of children injured or killed in the April 27, 2001, crash of a motorcoach bus that skidded off a highway ramp in Sussex, New Brunswick. Four children died in the crash, and many others were injured. The students from Newton, Mass., were on their way to a band competition in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Elaine Alpert, the mother of one of the bus passengers, told lawmakers that passage of the bill should be a “no brainer.” Her 12-year-old son, Stephen Glidden, was among the four students killed in the accident. The driver, Hin Chi Kan, did not appear at his court date last November in New Brunswick. Families of the victims have sued Kan, a second driver and the bus companies that employed them.