By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Despite the widely recognized dangers, school bus drivers in most of the country are free to chat on their cell phones -- or even punch in text messages-- while transporting America's children to class and back.
In fact, only 13 states now forbid the practice, except in emergencies. And even in some of the areas where it is banned, enforcement is so spotty that citizen watchdogs and news media investigators have had no problem documenting scofflaws.
To date, none of the 25 million children who ride 475,000 school buses each school day has died as a result of a handful of wrecks tied to the drivers' use of cell phones. But experts predict the sad inevitability that some will if there is not a concerted crackdown on the portable personal devices -- including hands-free varieties.
"The only kind of communication device a bus driver should be using... is an installed portable radio. And even then we would recommend they use it while they are stopped," said Pete Japikseis, a co-director of the American School Bus Council and a staffer at the Ohio Department of Education.
That is also the conclusion of the National Transportation Safety Board that last December called for a coast-to-coast ban. "Professional drivers who have dozens of passengers' lives entrusted to them should devote their full attention to their task," NTSB Mark Rosenker said.
That likely would have prevented a devastating injury to a young schoolgirl from Philadelphia. She and dozens of other children were traveling home from a field trip to the Baltimore aquarium when a tractor-trailer drifted into the school bus' lane. The bus driver seemed oblivious, witnesses would later say.
The vehicles collided, with the impact sending the bus careening across the highway, onto the median then back across two lanes of traffic before sliding on its side onto the shoulder of Interstate 95 near Baltimore.
The force of the crash flung Deneik Brownlee, 8, out a window. The bus' frame pinned her in a ditch, severing her right hand and shattering her elbow.
A primary contributing cause of that July 5, 2006 accident, which injured 30 children? Investigators said it was the inattention of the bus driver, who was talking on a cell phone at the time, according to a lawsuit filed in Deneik's behalf.
Other crashes include a 2004 case, in which a suburban Washington, D.C. bus driver was so busy chatting on his hands-free phone that he failed to notice a looming highway bridge or signs warning of a "low clearance" ahead. As a result, the bus carrying 27 children slammed into the northern Virginia overpass, destroying the roof and sending 11 kids to the hospital.
In 2005, a Maryland school bus driver lost control while driving with one hand as she answered her cell. She fell out of her seat and the bus, with 30 children aboard, slid down an embankment. No one was seriously hurt, although the driver faced traffic charges. In Prince George's County's school system, bus drivers are discouraged from using cell phones when moving, but violators face only minor administrative penalties if caught doing so.
School systems, the school transportation industry, police and other public safety agencies uniformly agree that bus drivers and cell conversations are a treacherous mix, given the inherent difficulties of the job in even the best circumstances and the precious nature of the passengers.
"It's a no-brainer, really," said Alan Ross, president of the non-profit, all-volunteer National Coalition of School Bus Safety.
So far, the only states with bans are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas. Kentucky claims the newest law, which took effect June 25. In North Carolina, a school bus cell-ban bill is now on the governors' desk.
Though the federal safety board called on it to do so, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has not issued regulations barring cell phone use by those with commercial driver's licenses who drive school buses. Federal statistics show that 17,000 school kids are injured in bus accidents each year, but no tally exists of those hurt in cell-related crashes or incidents.
Some states or school districts take an intermediate route in trying to curtail the practice by imposing administrative rules that critics say amount to hand slaps and are subject to little oversight.
School transportation industry groups -- which don't always agree with safety advocates' prescriptions on such things as seatbelts on buses -- say that is not enough. They not only support full cell-use bans but in some cases go even further than the national safety board did in calling for change.
"We believe it is important that school districts and school bus operators address and go beyond the NTSB's recommendation," the school bus council, which is a school transportation industry group, said in issuing guidelines on the subject this year. It also called for a ban on the use of cell phones while supervising the loading or unloading of passengers.
Some citizen watchdogs want penalties imposed to be sufficiently tough to match the potential peril they are designed to forestall. Among the toughest is the one proposed for North Carolina, where violators would face a misdemeanor charge and a minimum $100 fine for driving while chatting.
But even in states with laws, cell phone use can remain pervasive. Local TV reporters and ordinary citizens across the country have documented dozens of school bus drivers behind the wheel as they yak away.
In Los Angeles, where it has been illegal since 2004 for school bus operators to drive while talking on a phone, a TV crew in May spotted a driver making a right turn one-handed while on the phone and holding a cup. The same month, a citizen in Ogden, Utah, snapped pictures of a school-district driver steering with her elbows as she talked on the phone.
In Texas, where state law bans the practice, TV news cameras caught a driver in Dallas rolling over curbs as she held a cell-phone conversation that lasted at least 18 minutes.
But it apparently can also be dangerous to follow the rules and pull off the road to make a call. In Indiana last November, an Indianapolis Public Schools bus driver stopped on the shoulder to take a phone call from her mother. As she did, a man driving a Hummer and fiddling with its radio plowed into the back of the school bus. He got the ticket in that accident.
That's very dangerous and
That's very dangerous and the news is quite disturbing. At the list could they use an earpiece. At least schools or the school board should have the drivers use earpieces or provide some safety information for them.
I think the use of cell phones by bus drivers to let parents know they are on their way or to act as a tracking device for the school buses is an option that should start to be considered.
IT'S NOT THE ONLY DISTRACTION
A cell phone is a tool that a responsible bus driver uses as just that, a tool. I cannot imagine driving down the road "chatting" on the phone in a leisurely conversation. All who have my phone number (friends, family) know when I am on the school bus and that I will not answer their calls.
I do have parents who may have an emergency situation such as not being at their rural home in time to meet their children's bus, so they request that I take the child to a nearby relative or re-arrange the route so their children as young as 4 yrs old are not home alone.
I am a responsible bus driver who has no problem not answering the phone if the situation is unsafe to do so. More than once I have handed the phone over to an older student and told them to answer any calls because the road conditions are unsafe for me to answer the phone.
What bothers me about the push of laws that restrict cell phone usage is that lawmakers make a big deal about how safe they are making school children....Bologna!!!
IF LAWMAKERS TRULY WANTED TO MAKE OUR NATION'S SCHOOL CHILDREN SAFE--THEY WOULD MANDATE AND PAY FOR SAFETY BELTS FOR EACH AND EVERY CHILD ON A SCHOOL BUS!!!!
I am far more distracted by having to tell children multiple times to follow rules such as sitting in their seats and not moving around while the bus is in motion...THIS IS A HUGE DISTRACTION that happens almost every minute of the bus ride...
It is SO HYPOCRITICAL that individuals are required to buckle up in their own cars with threat of fines, yet our states put millions of kids on school buses without this safety feature.
In Oklahoma where I drive a school bus, lawmakers are working on a law that would create a $1,000 fine for a school bus driver to use their cell phone while driving a school bus....this is a bit outrageous since the amount of this fine equals more than 1/6 of my annual salary as a school bus driver. Especially since a cell phone is the only means of communication between the school bus and the school or parents, there is no radio in the bus.
So what happens if there is an emergency or a child misses the bus?
I am certainly not going to pay a $1000 fine for answering the phone so hopefully by not answering the phone a bigger emergency or threat against safety does not occur for one of my children.
My message to lawmakers is to quit trying to look good by creating laws that only half-way solve a problem. You might be able to get a cell phone law passed which may generate a little revenue for the government...but you need to put your money where your mouth is and pay for safety belts in buses, if you really care about making our kids safe!!!
If you are a parent you need to ask your lawmakers why they don't push for safety belts...They will tell you that school buses are the safest mode of transportation for children so they don't really see a reason for safety belts...oh really if it is so safe what's the worry about cell phone usage??
IT'S NOT THE ONLY DISTRACTION
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