The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services initiated another request of states to participate in a one-day count of motorists that violate laws aimed to protect students in the school bus loading and unloading zone.
Last year, the inaugural count occurred in 28 states during the spring months. Nearly 112,000 school bus drivers participated and reported a total of 37,756 total stop-arm passing violations, often involving several cars during any one incident. Nearly 97 percent of the illegal passing incidents occurred on the left side of the bus.
Keeping in mind that nearly half of the states did not report figures, the 2011 total still equated to more than 13 million violations by 76,685 private vehicles during an average 180-day school year.
NASDPTS is encouraging states this year to conduct their counts between March 1 and May 31, with the hope of assembling the total reported data in June. NASDPTS directed its request to individual state directors of pupil transportation services and encouraged them to enlist the help of their respective state associations.
NASDPTS also provided sample illegal passing reporting forms for bus drivers to utilize as well as a sample spreadsheet for tabulating the total state-wide data. State directors also were pointed to sample letters to use in communicating the effort to local district directors and supervisors.
NASDPTS members resolved to conduct the national count at the conclusion of their 2010 annual conference in Portland, Ore.
