COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine hosted a news conference Wednesday afternoon to announce that he wants the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and Ohio General Assembly to work together and create a needs-based grant program to help schools purchase new buses or outfit existing buses with more safety features as well as further train drivers.
The announcement is the result of a months-long study the Ohio School Bus Safety Working Group was tasked with to make bus rides safer for school children.
Watch the full press conference below:
Driving a school bus is an adventure every day, one that South Euclid Lyndhurst School District bus driver Davida Russell said she knows well.
"You never know what's going to be a happy day or a sad day," she said.
She has driven for more than four decades and has seen a change in how drivers treat her.
"They have no sense of who we're transporting and the safety issue behind what they could do," she said. "They really don't understand that they can actually kill someone."
After a series of deadly bus crashes around Ohio, DeWine and Public Safety Director Andy Wilson agreed with her that changes need to be made.
Over the last few months, the working group met and discussed what changes would be the most beneficial to school districts around the state.
DeWine said the working group's study resulted in a list of recommendations for districts to consider; the state wouldn't mandate the changes, acknowledging that what may work in one district or geographic region may not be feasible in another.
Below is the full list of recommendations from the working group:
The working group also released a list of safety features it would like to see on school buses, which include:
- Seat belts
- External bus cameras
- Crossing arms
- Lane departure warning systems
- Electronic stability control
- Lighted crossover mirrors
- Colorado rack-test-approved bus frames
- Fully illuminated stop arms at the front and rear
- Fully illuminated "school bus" signs
- Collision avoidance systems
- All LED lights
- Ground wash lights
- Reflective chevrons
Specifically regarding seat belts on buses, DeWine and Wilson noted that while seat belts would go a long way for safety, mandating them wasn't an effective use of government resources, and the decision to require them should remain with individual school districts.
"We want to allow districts to have the flexibility to focus on safety features and new technology for school buses that can prevent crashes from happening at all," Wilson said.
DeWine said the state also aims to increase school bus driver training drivers receive each year, such as defensive driving. Additionally, driver training should be done through a standardized curriculum to ensure that all drivers in the state are taking the same courses.
To help pay for the driver training, outfitting existing buses or purchasing new ones, DeWine wants the state to have a grant program that school districts can apply to. The goal isn't to outfit each district with a fleet of new buses but to help them pay for buses when it's time to purchase a new one. DeWine noted that it's typical for districts to replace a bus after it's been in use for around 10 years.
While the safety group focused mainly on school buses, they also addressed the Tusky Valley commercial bus crash — one that killed three students and three adults.
"Before a school district engages in contracting for commercial vehicles, they have a policy centered around ensuring those operate in a safe manner," Wilson said. "Does the company drug test its people, does the company criminal background check, what's the company's safety record?"
Russell is hopeful for these changes, but she had previously advocated for more help on the buses — since she says sometimes kids can get overwhelming.
"We wish we would have gotten a second person on a bus to help with that," she said. "But we can't get everything, but what we got is a good step."
These are just recommendations, but lawmakers like state Rep. Bernie Willis (R-Springfield) say they are working on legislation to match the governor's requests of the G.A.
Click here to read the full report and recommendations from the working group. You can also view the document below:
