The New York School Bus Contractors Association (NYSBCA) will be having a School Bus Safety Demonstration Day in collaboration with the Suffolk Region PTA on March 25.
The event is intended to educate parents and school officials on the safety features of the school bus as well as the training requirements that school bus drivers have to meet. It will take place at the Suffolk Transportation Service’s Safety and Training Center located on 50 Saxon Avenue in Bay Shore. The event is part of an ongoing state initiative to create awareness about school bus safety.
“Our top priority as private pupil transportation providers is to ensure the safest ride possible to and from school each day for over one million children in New York,” said New York School Bus Contractors Association President, Bob Pape. “The safety demonstrations event will bring New York’s premier School Bus safety experts together to share their knowledge and skills, along with our industries best practices, with parents and school officials from across the region.”
The sessions will have information about how school bus drivers are screened and hired and what the required qualifications are. Attendees will get to experience driver training by rotating through different safety stations, each with a different focus.
Some of the other safety topics that will be covered are stop arms, child safety check procedures, evacuation procedures and more. There will be two different two-hour sessions, one at 10:30 p.m. and one at 6:30 p.m.
“At the end of the session all participants will have a greater understanding of what it takes to keep our children safe on or near a school bus, and the things we can all do to improve student and school bus safety,” said Pape. “School Bus Safety Demonstration Day will also help us to continue to do what we do best – provide among the safest pupil transportation services in the country.”
