National School Bus Safety Week at Hendrick Hudson

National School Bus Safety Week is October 20-24, 2014 and we are celebrating it here in the Hendrick Hudson School District.

School Bus Safety is the result of several critical elements including the School Bus, the School Bus Driver (and team), our children, and the motoring public. As we begin School Bus Safety Week, we want to discuss each of these elements and encourage the public to cooperate with us in ensuring the safety of the more than 2.3 million children who ride yellow school buses every day in New York State!

The School Bus. The School Bus is the first critical element in the safety formula. It is designed to transport children safely and its safety record speaks loudly. The exterior and the interior features of the school bus are engineered to keep our children safe and that begins with the bright yellow color that calls attention to the bus. The design of the school bus also includes specifically designed lighting, mirrors, reflective materials, compartmentalized seating and passenger protections and more.

The School Bus Driver. The driver of the school bus is responsible for safely transporting our children to and from school and school events. Drivers are required to hold a Commercial Drivers’ License and to attain both a Passenger endorsement and a School Bus endorsement to allow them to transport our children. Once they are properly licensed, they can drive a school bus after having completed a pre-service course required in New York. They must also complete a 30-hour Basic Training Course within the first year of their employment. Many if not all drivers also continue their training with the Advanced Driver Training Course.

And they are not done yet! Bus drivers also participate annually in two 2-hour refresher training courses on timely and safety-sensitive topics identified by the State Education Department. They are also subject to annual medical physicals, biennial Physical Performance Tests, random drug and alcohol testing, behind-the-wheel testing and more. These things are done in the interests of keeping our children safe!

The Children. The bottom line of all that we do in terms of safety is our children. We have no higher mission than ensuring their safe transport to school and then back home to their families each day. But the children also play a role in their own safety. We work hard to instill an overall sense of safe behavior and practice in the children. They learn how to line up safely at the bus stop and to follow the directions of the bus driver when they are boarding the school bus, especially when their boarding involves crossing the road first. They are given at least three bus safety drills during the school year to cover lessons such as evacuation from the bus, boarding and disembarking from the bus, precautions in inclement weather and more. Children are also guided in terms of behavior on the bus including attentiveness to the bus driver and respectful behavior toward one another. Parents are encouraged to instill and reinforce these lessons in their children to help ensure a safe ride each day. Students are recognized each month for being “Safe Riders” on our buses.

The Motoring Public. School buses share the roads and highways with all types of vehicles and in all kinds of weather and conditions. We need the motoring public and parents to please STOP for stopped school buses that have their red lights flashing. It is the LAW of our state that cars stop for those red flashing lights which indicate that a child is getting onto or off a school bus. This is a major highway safety risk for our children and we need the public to heed those red lights!!

For further information about school bus safety or to discuss specific transportation services in our school district, please feel free to contact Elizabeth Gilleo, Supervisor of Transportation at liz.gilleo@henhudschools.org