LI Educator Pens Heartfelt Letter In Response To Indiana Crash

BAY SHORE, NY - Bay Shore School District Superintendent Joseph C. Bond recently released a heartfelt letter to the community in response to a fatal bus stop crash in Indiana last week.

On Oct. 30, a school bus from the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation was stopped in front of a mobile home park to pick up the students. The driver activated the bus' stop arm and exterior lighting as he was picking up children from the west side of the road.

As students crossed the road to get on the bus, the four children were hit by a car driven by 24-year-old Alyssa Shepherd, police said.

The crash resulted in the death of three young siblings and caused injuries to another child.

Read the full letter below:

What Will It Take?

My heart is heavy. Last week, at a time when they should have been making last-minute adjustments to Halloween costumes, an Indiana family was making arrangements to say good-bye to three children.

As the father of two sons, I cannot imagine the pain this family is going through. I first heard about the tragedy of these beautiful children being slaughtered by a reckless driver while watching the evening news with my wife. We turned to each other with tears in our eyes that only a parent can understand, and prayed for strength for the loving parents and the injured child.

Alivia Stahl, Xzavier Ingle and Mason Ingle, a big sister and her twin younger brothers, were killed trying to board the bus to school. A fourth child, Maverik Lower, was left with serious injuries. The driver who hit them is charged with, among other things, illegally passing a school bus while the lights were flashing and the stop arm was down.

When will we, as a society, stop being so callous about the safety of the youngest members of our communities?

If you follow the Bay Shore School District news, then you have read multiple pieces from me over the last three years on this issue and may have seen special reports on New 4 New York. I have shared the numbers of Bay Shore drivers illegally passing buses, which we collect on one day each month. In our first count of the 2018-2019 school year, 124 drivers passed a stopped school bus. In one day.

This is more than a Bay Shore problem; it is a national disgrace. We, as a society, are too rushed and too oblivious to the world around us. Too often our own needs and desires make us blind to the safety and needs of others. Perhaps we should recall the words of Mother Teresa when she admonished us, “Never be so busy as not to think of others.”

We work closely with law enforcement to bring violators to justice. We hold special enforcement days where police cars ride behind buses to catch drivers illegally passing. During the last enforcement day, we ran out of officers available to pull over cars because of the number of drivers apprehended.

The illegal passing of school buses must end. It is not a matter of drivers being inconvenienced. It is a matter of life and death, as a family in Indiana knows all too well this week. When you make the selfish decision to ignore the red lights and stop arm of a bus, you are putting children’s lives at risk.

I am calling on our elected officials to take action. For the last few years, the Bay Shore School District and others across the state have called for legislation that would allow cameras to be placed on buses for enforcement purposes. These cameras, which have been piloted in Bay Shore, turn on only when the stop arm and red lights on the bus are activated to allow students to board or disembark. They capture any vehicle that goes past the bus. However, without enabling legislation there is nothing that can be done to punish the drivers who are caught on film. Our state officials can change that with a simple vote.

My thoughts are with the families of Alivia, Xzavier, Mason and Maverik, and the staff and students of the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. I pray that we never have to experience their pain first-hand in Bay Shore.

Image: Twitter/BayShoreSupe