National Safety Dog Bus Tour Makes a Stop at San Francisco’s Lakeshore Elementary School

On October 19, the Safety Dog Bus Tour arrived at Lakeshore Elementary School in San Francisco to shine a spotlight on safe school bus behavior and stop arm awareness during National School Bus Safety Week.

In an assembly hosted by First Student, the school transportation leader and official provider for the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), more than 270 students from kindergarten through second grade learned about bus riding basics and safe procedures. Students explored the safety and emergency features on a school bus, completed activity packets, walked the “Yellow Carpet” and posed for a photo with Safety Dog, the safety mascot for First Student.

“Student safety is at the heart of everything we do,” said First Student Area General Manager John Olivares. “The Safety Dog Bus Tour engages thousands of students and parents within the communities we serve and reinforcing valuable safety messages in a fun and memorable way.”

National School Bus Safety Week, sponsored by the National Association of Pupil Transportation, is a public education campaign reinforcing the importance of school bus safety. This year, the tour aims to remind motorists that they, too, have an important role in keeping bus riders safe by emphasizing the importance of observing the stop arm.

Red flashing lights and an extended stop arm mean children are entering or exiting the bus. On two-lane roadways, drivers must come to a complete stop in either direction until the stop arm and red lights are deactivated. A recent survey* suggests that there could be more than 13 million illegal stop arm passes during a school year. A stop arm violation in the Bay Area can cost drivers up to $695 and one point on your driver’s license.

First Student has provided school transportation to SFUSD for more than 45 years and transports 3,500 children daily through a fleet of 240 yellow school busses. The company is the only provider in the industry to be awarded the National Safety Council Green Cross for Safety medal, the highest award for safety in North America.

More safety tips and downloadable activities are available for students and parents at safetydogbustour.com and through the #SafetyDogBusTour hashtag on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*Survey by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS)