ALBANY, N.Y. — At a press event being held earlier today at Starpoint Central School Middle School, the New York Association for Pupil Transportation is announcing the Operation Safe Stop Day events for 2012.
Operation Safe Stop Day is an educational and law enforcement effort coordinated by NYAPT and through the Pupil Transportation community to call attention to “illegal passing of school buses.”
Operation Safe Stop Day has been conducted every year since 1993. This year, it is officially being held on April 18, and schools and police agencies from all across the state will be participating.
To explain:
First: What is “illegal passing”? Section 1174 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law requires that all vehicles/motorists STOP whenever they approach a School Bus with its red lights flashing. Motorists are required to STOP in all circumstances, even on divided highways and in all directions. The law provides for stiff financial penalties, possible jail time as well as five points on the driver’s license.
Second: What is Operation Safe Stop? In 1993, a group of dedicated school transportation officials came up with the idea of asking local police departments to follow school buses to identify motorists who were passing the school buses. They provided the police with so-called “hot spots” where their drivers had experienced frequent illegal passes and the police concentrated their efforts in those areas and bus routes. Nearly 20 years later, the formula is the same. And so is the problem.
Third: Why Operation Safe Stop? While there is no statewide empirical data, best estimates show that motorists will illegally pass a stopped school bus more than 50,000 times per day. The public needs to understand the dangers that this presents to our children. There are 2.3 million children who ride the yellow school bus each day with the honest expectation that they will get to school and back to their families each day safely. It is our job to make sure we do everything in our power to make their expectation a reality.
Fourth: Have children been injured or killed by illegal passing? YES. Sadly we have had children killed by passing motorists and we have had dozens of children injured by passing motorists.While we had two children killed by illegal passers in 2004 and 2005, we are fortunate in that we have not had any children killed since then. But the risk is always clear and present. School bus drivers report of frequent “right side” passes where a motorist drives along the passenger side of the bus. This exposes our children to being hit by a car as they are stepping off of their school bus or as they are lined up to get onto the bus.
These are the reasons we conduct an annual Operation Safe Stop Day:
• There is a problem.
• The problem is rampant.
• The problem affects the safety and well-being of our children.
• The problem must be corrected by us: the adults in our society and our communities.
NYAPT continues to work with our great partners in the law enforcement community and with the very supportive Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee to provide educational materials and information to the public and other interest groups about this problem. Our goal is that “someday we will hold an Operation Safe Stop Day and no one will illegally pass a stopped school bus.”
