Road rage precipitates death of school bus driver
BOSTON — The Nov. 30 death of a veteran school bus driver in an apparent road rage incident has had an emotional impact on the pupil transportation industry. Paul Keith, area general manager for Laidlaw Education Services in Boston, said he received comments and expressions of sympathy from drivers across the country following the death of Sandra Thomas, who drove a school bus for 27 years. Thomas was involved in an apparent altercation with another motorist, Dana Lombardi, on Nov. 30 while returning to the bus compound in the early evening. Witnesses say Lombardi drove off with Thomas clinging to the hood of his Volkswagen Beetle and then ran over her. He fled the accident scene but later turned himself in to police. Meanwhile, Thomas suffered fatal injuries. Through his attorney, Lombardi, who has been charged with manslaughter, accused Thomas of instigating the event by throwing herself in front of his car. Keith said his drivers are warned against leaving their buses in a traffic dispute, but said they are allowed to get out of the bus to exchange insurance information in the event of an accident. He said it’s possible that Thomas and Lombardi had been involved in a minor fender-bender, based on paint smudges discovered on the side of Thomas’ 14-passenger bus. Following the incident, grief counselors were dispatched to Laidlaw’s Boston terminal, which covers 621 routes for Boston Public Schools. Some of the drivers, Keith said, were devastated by the news. “I sat outside this building for more than a half hour with one driver, just holding her,” he said. “It was a real tough thing.” In the wake of the incident, Keith said some drivers have voiced concerns about leaving their buses, even after a minor traffic accident. “I told them they could call a dispatcher for assistance and stay in their vehicles until a safety supervisor arrived,” he said. Although Laidlaw has been holding road rage training sessions for its drivers for a couple of years, Keith said the next meeting likely will be an emotional one. “It has a lot more reality now,” he said. “We probably will have some school counselors in attendance.”
Kindergartner killed in bus stop accident
MARTINEZ, Ga. — A 5-year-old girl was run over and killed by her school bus on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 9. Aleana Johnson, a kindergartner at Westmont Elementary School, apparently tripped over her shoestrings as she was crossing in front of the bus and wasn’t able to get out of the way as the vehicle pulled away. The bus driver, 22-year-old Robert Matthews, was placed on leave pending the results of an investigation. Johnson reportedly was struck by the front left fender and then the rear left tires. According to published reports, the crossing gate was extended. Her mother, Christy Johnson, told the Augusta Chronicle that Aleana was “beautiful, bubbly and full of life.”
Teen wins contest, initiates safety program
MULDROW, Okla. — Kyle Alderson, a ninth-grader at Muldrow High School in Oklahoma, not only won a state speech contest on school bus safety, he also convinced school officials to implement a district-wide school bus safety program. As winner of the second annual Oklahoma School Bus Safety Speech Contest, Kyle received a $1,000 college scholarship. The contest awards $3,000 in scholarships to finalists each year. An expansion to a national speech contest is in the works. Kyle’s winning speech, “Saving Timmy: School Bus Safety Awareness,” opened with a story about a 5-year-old boy named Timmy who is killed getting off the bus on his first day of school — because no one instructed him on school bus safety. At the end of his speech, Kyle revealed that Timmy was a fictional character invented to emphasize the importance of school bus safety programs. In researching his speech, Kyle discovered that the large majority of children killed in school bus accidents die while boarding or exiting the bus, not as passengers. This surprising fact prompted Kyle to campaign for a school bus safety program in his school district. “To think that something that simple kills so many kids each year,” Kyle said. “I thought something needs to be done about that.” With the help of Roger Sharp, superintendent of Muldrow Public Schools, and transportation director Phillip Davis, the district will implement a school bus safety program early this year. All students will receive at least one hour of instruction on bus safety from the Muldrow police safety officer, and safety information will be given to faculty and staff. “My goal was simply to make children, parents, staff, school officials, and all of the community aware of the dangers of riding the school bus,” Kyle said. He hopes the program he started will do just that, and that other communities will see the benefits of safety education and implement a similar program to save children’s lives. “I’m excited that children are being able to become educated and to be safer riding the school bus,” Kyle said.
Alabama billboard campaign targets stop-arm runners
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama State Department of Education (SDE), in cooperation with the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Governor’s Office, has initiated a school bus safety campaign aimed at informing all motorists that Alabama law requires them to stop for school buses that are loading or unloading students. The first step in the campaign, unveiled at the State Board of Education meeting in December, is a public effort consisting of 90 billboards to be placed near interstate highways in six major metropolitan areas. The SDE spent more than $50,000 on the creation and installation of the billboards. As the next step in the battle, Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman proposed raising the fine for stop-arm runners to a minimum of $500. “We’ll push it as high as I can get it,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The increased minimum fine, if approved, would cost a guilty motorist slightly less than the average weekly salary in Alabama. Siegelman said that the state has a serious problem with motorists passing stopped school buses. Two Alabama children were killed in loading and unloading accidents in the past three years. “I hope and expect the school bus safety campaign will increase awareness about this critical safety issue,” he said.
Fanciful wall art created by bus technicians
LIVONIA, Mich. — The fleet maintenance building at Livonia School District is unremarkable in many ways — except perhaps for the fully lighted school bus protruding from its brick exterior. This unusual “wall art,” which acts as a sign for the fleet maintenance department, is an exact replica of the front section of a Thomas MVP model bus, according to its architect, Fred Krueger, the district’s fleet maintenance supervisor. Krueger said he wanted to create a unique and eye-catching sign for his department. The idea had been percolating for a couple of years before he proposed it to operations director David Watson, who approved. “I thought it was clever,” said Watson. After receiving the green light from Watson, Krueger and six fellow mechanics started the project during the summer and finished it in September. Krueger said the sign is based on the dimensions of a real bus, 8 feet wide and 10 feet high. The maintenance team used donated scrap parts, painted them “national school bus yellow” and wired the completed unit so it had functional lights. Response to the sign, which Krueger said symbolizes the pride he and his coworkers feel toward their department, has been positive. The greatest satisfaction, Krueger added, comes from seeing how the sign makes people smile. “People could be having a bad day, but when they see the bus up there, they get a kick out of it,” he said.
Superintendent communicates on the bus
KUNA, Idaho — Doug Rutan has a professional mission statement: to serve, to care, to empower and to make a difference. As superintendent of Kuna Joint School District No. 3, Rutan achieves just that — every time he climbs behind the wheel of a school bus. By driving students to their activities, Rutan has been able to combine his affinity for school buses with staying in touch with his district. A few times during the month, Rutan drives students to their sports, drama, choir or band functions. The idea to drive a school bus evolved from his fascination with the vehicles. Presently, Rutan is leading a restoration of a 1937 International school bus and continues to add to his collection of more than 75 toy school buses. Rutan said that driving the students is “a great opportunity to get to know them better.” He hopes the students view him as a good role model and as someone who cares and acknowledges their potential. What Rutan gains from his experiences of driving the students is a perspective on life, particularly when dealing with job stress. “It brings it down to such a simple level of just individual kids, and making a difference in their lives,” said Rutan. The transportation department and the bus drivers themselves also see benefits from Rutan’s additional role as bus driver. “Doug really understands the needs of the transportation department because he also is a part of our organization,” says Linda Braswell, driver trainer for the district. One need that Rutan has addressed is making sure that accommodations for overnight trips are located in good areas of communities. Also, if there is a shortage of drivers, Rutan will always fill in. Rutan said he is enjoying his second career more as the years pass because he gets to know a greater number of students, and it is his way of showing appreciation for other bus drivers.
Description of 1999-2000 'danger zone' fatalities
TOPEKA, Kan. — Twenty-two children were killed in school bus loading/unloading accidents during the 1999-2000 school year, according to an annual survey performed by the Kansas State Department of Education’s School Bus Safety Education Unit. That’s a 22 percent increase over the previous year, in which 18 fatalities were reported. The following are summaries of the circumstances of the fatal incidents.
