Police On Strongsville Buses Already Deterring Reckless Driving

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Strongsville police say they've already made an impact by announcing they're going to begin riding on area school buses. Bus drivers are claiming they're already seeing better compliance with safety laws.

"My opinion is, and this isn’t scientific, it seems the community and the motoring public have changed their driving habits," Police Chief Mark Fender told Patch. "They’re stopping well in advance of the buses. Drivers are seeing less infractions."

Officers are riding school buses in force this week. Starting next week, police will ride in buses more sporadically.

"The motoring public needs to say that there could be an officer on any one of these buses, I better slow down," Fender said.

One of the tangential benefits of the program has been increased awareness of school bus safety laws. That awareness has largely been generated through publicity.

Besides Patch, news of the police-on-buses story was shared by television stations Fox 8 and WKYC.

Patch broke news of the operation on Dec. 1, when Superintendent Cameron Ryba announced the program. He noted that drivers don't always obey long-established school bus safety laws.

"Our focus on the safety of our students does not just begin at our school doors, but during their travels to and from school as well," said Strongsville Schools Superintendent Cameron Ryba. "One area of student safety that we are always working to problem solve is the safety of our students as they get on or off the school bus to their point of safety. "

Throughout this week, police cruisers are following behind buses, with officers on-board, to more quickly seek out and ticket drivers that break school bus safety laws.

"If a driver ignores the stop signals of the bus, the police officer will be able to witness the violation, document the necessary information, and process the appropriate traffic violation," Ryba said.

Throughout the week, Strongsville Police have been sharing information on how drivers should react when approaching a stopped school bus. Here's which laws police will more aggressively enforce moving forward:

• If a school bus stops on a street with less than four lanes (in both directions) then both directions of traffic must stop and cannot move until the bus begins rolling forward.
• If there's four or more lanes on a street, only traffic going the same direction as the bus must stop.
• Drivers need to stop at least 10 feet from the bus.
• Again, drivers stopped behind a bus must wait for the bus to move before moving themselves.

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