Press release from N.C. Department of Public Instruction:
While school buses remain incredibly safe, students are most vulnerable outside the bus in the “danger zone.” North Carolina is assisting the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) in coordinating a national survey to document the illegal passing of school buses. The data will help highlight the need for improved safety countermeasures.
On Wednesday, April 17, 2024, please have your district’s bus drivers observe and report any motorists illegally passing their school buses using the attached form. Even drivers who have no “pass-bys” on the day of the survey should turn in the form so that we can get accurate data on how many pass-bys occur per day per bus.
Please distribute the NASDPTS Stop Arm Driver Form 2024 to all bus drivers. Please instruct drivers to pay attention to the instructions and safety precautions. As always, their primary duty is to ensure the safety of their students. Please have your drivers pay close attention to the bottom of the form where they are instructed to “report only illegal passes that occur while the bus driver is stopped with red warning lights flashing and stop arm(s) deployed in full compliance with our state training and procedures.”
The count results support the need for more safety resources, such as stop-arm cameras and stop-arm enhancement equipment.
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