Police Will Now Ride In Strongsville School Buses

STRONGSVILLE, OH — Police officers will now ride in Strongsville school buses, the district announced. Police will be able to witness drivers ignoring the bus's flashing red stop lights, and then cite the offending driver.

"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. "

On October 30, three siblings in Indiana were killed when they stepped off their school bus and were hit by a speeding driver. Other crashes occurred in Mississippi and Florida, with children being injured or killed by drivers ignoring a school bus' stop sign and flashing lights.

Strongsville bus drivers have witnessed similarly dangerous behavior in the community and the district is working to prevent a tragedy.

"Unfortunately, some drivers in the community do not obey the traffic rules to stop and continue to drive around our school buses causing an unsafe situation for our students," Ryba noted.

That's why Strongsville Schools have partnered with Strongsville police. Officers will now be assigned randomly to a school bus.

"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, before thanking Police Chief Mark Fender and the entire police department.

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