A new video produced by the Child Safety Network depicts the tragic consequences of motorists failing to heed school buses that are loading and unloading students.
It dramatizes the aftermath of a female driver realizing that she struck and killed a student who was crossing the street from his school bus stop toward home.
“Don’t pass from either direction. It’s not just the law, it’s a child’s life,” the video concludes.
Det. Daniel Sperry of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office in Idaho also shares during the video a personal story about the ramifications of not stopping for school buses. As he recounted for STN EXPO Reno attendees in 2016, the Dec. 20, 2011 death of his 11-year-old stepdaughter MaKayla Strahle when she was struck by an illegal passer moments after exiting her school bus just across the road from the family’s home.
“We wrote Makayla’s eulogy on Christmas Eve,” he says.
Ward Leber, founder and CEO of the Child Safety Network, told School Transportation News that the video is the first in a series that will be posted online, starting Sept. 15. Leber and CSN were instrumental in getting the U.S. Senate to proclaim September as School Bus Safety Month.
Related: Indiana Continues Battle Against Illegal Passing of School Buses
Related: NHTSA to Conduct School Bus Illegal Passing Surveys
Related: NTSB to Electronically Release Cause of Fatal Indiana School-Bus Illegal Passing
