Our next blog will likely come to you during or shortly after the 21st STN EXPO that starts next weekend in Reno, Nev. Until then, a few items of interest to wrap up this week.
The School Bus Driver International Safety Competition begins Saturday in Charleston, S.C., as part of the National School Transportation Association’s Annual Summer Convention. To get in the spirit, read this month’s Web Exclusive on Larry Hannon, winner of a record eight titles at the event spanning back to the 1980s.
We’ve seen a lot of interesting uses for retired school buses but this one’s for the dogs. Literally. The co-owner of Sheba’s Doggy Day Camp in York, S.C., converted a former school bus with custom accommodations to transport dogs to her day camp (left).
On Thursday Montana’s Board of Education amended the current rule on hiring school bus drivers (ARM 10.64.201) to mandate criminal background checks before initial employment. The state made this change to clarify the stipulation in Montana law that school bus drivers be “of good moral character.”
The amendment was prompted by the results of last year’s safety audit by the Legislative Audit Committee, which found that at least 64 of the state’s 1,435 drivers actively employed during the 2011-2012 school year had convictions, including for drunken driving. Several had been arrested on felony warrants or had multiple convictions, one had an active arrest warrant and another was listed on the state sexual and violent offender registry, according to the Billings Gazette.
School bus drivers must also have a safe driving record, as defined by having no more than one moving traffic violation in each of the past three years, no DUI convictions in the past three years and no conviction resulting in a suspended driver’s license for five years.
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me … Bay District Schools in Panama Beach, Fla., is hoping there isn’t a third time after a 12-year-old boy was arrested for the second time in the last month for going for a joyride in a school bus. On Wednesday, a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies pulled over a bus that they had observed driving erratically. That’s when they discovered Michael Propst behind the wheel — again.
“He just got out of (the Department of Juvenile Justice) yesterday on the last case where he stole the bus from us,” Mike Jones, the district’s safety and security officer, told .
No injuries were reported aside from some potentially bruised district egos.
The first five of New York’s school zone speed safety cameras issued 41,000 tickets from mid-January through the end of May. In June, when 15 more cameras became operational, more than 48,000 tickets were issued.
SOURCE: New York Post, July 15, 2014
