The following letter was submitted to School Bus Fleet from a 48-year school bus driver in Illinois.

All school bus drivers say how much they care for their riders (kids). Well then, why do they let them off the bus and run across the street without making sure it is safe for them to cross in front of the bus?

It does not take but a minute to check and see if it is safe for them to cross and then motion them across. We were trained to do this. We had to demonstrate it when we took our driving test to get our CDL.

I understand shortcuts, but this is not one of the shortcuts you should be taking. Not at the expense of a child's life.

If a child gets hit (injured/killed), the lawyers, police, state investigators will view the tapes and question witnesses, parents etc. It will all come down to the driver. Did he/she do everything correctly? If not, why not? And then it will come down to the school district too for not making sure all their drivers are doing everything correctly.

Are you ready for all of this? Are you ready to live with the fact that you didn’t take that minute to do it correctly?

Now that I have covered this problem, I will go into stop arm violations. These two important aspects of school bus driving go hand in hand.

If someone runs your stop arm and is fortunate enough not to hit a student (because you made that student wait until it was safe), but gets caught by the camera on the school bus, get issued a ticket, and loses their license for three or more months, this person should thank their lucky stars that they only got a ticket and not charged with hitting/killing a student crossing in front of a school bus and having that on their conscience for the rest of their life.

This goes for everyone who operates a motor vehicle. Just because you are a person with influential friends, are a school employee, are a doctor, lawyer, judge, even a school bus driver, no one is exempt from this.

Some of the excuses I have heard:

• I was running late for an appointment.  

• I was late for work.  

• I didn’t see the bus. 

• It is only a school bus.

Think how late you would be if you hit/killed a student. Who would you have to call to explain why you are late, or at the police station, or even the hospital?

I have driven a school bus for 48 years and fortunately have not had a student hit. I hope I never see a child get hit. But there are people out there running stop arms every day. I have seen some of the aforementioned people who just didn’t get it.

Don’t be one of them.

Let's do our part to keep our children safe from harm.

-Eliza Leonard

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