RENO, Nev. — Industry veterans Richard Fischer and Peter Baxter commenced STN EXPO by hosting a full-day accident investigations interactive session.
During the eight-hour session, attendees learned the importance of training, negligence, liability, and more. Fischer noted that it’s not “if” but “when” you will have an accident in your operation. That statement stuck for Brittney Reasbeck, the driver-trainer for Elko County School District in Nevada.
She told School Transportation News that her district doesn’t have a lot of accidents but came to the session to understand what to do when there is a crash, what goes into investigations, and how to be prepared.
“Negligence can cost you millions,” Reasbeck recalled from the notes she took. “What can I do to protect myself and the kids and the other drivers? Making sure our people are properly trained to not drop off students too early or are aware of what’s going around them.”
Fischer added that one will never forget their first fatality but explained that through accident investigations the information and knowledge on what to do during that tragedy can be passed on to others. The presenters listed over a 100 bullet points on various incidents that should be investigated, including driver fatigue, school bus fires, other motorists, safety rules and more.
“The average driver makes a driving error once every quarter mile,” Fischer said.
Installation of Lap/shoulder Seatbelts
One attendee during Friday’s school bus accident investigation seminar asked about the recent announcement from Blue Bird on standard lap/shoulder seatbelts installed in school buses, and how that safety restraint systems could impact evacuations. Class instructor Richard Fischer said there should be no issues if bus drivers and students are properly trained on evacuating the bus with seatbelts. He said Blue Bird most likely made the decision to remove liability. More and more kids are being thrown around inside the bus, he said, which results in the district and OEM being sued for the lack of three-point belts installed because they are available. “Cover your Adams-apple,” Fischer said of the decision.
Fellow instructor Peter Baxter added that he has been an advocate for lap/shoulder seatbelts from the start, citing a tremendous amount of product development. He noted that lap/shoulder seatbelts will keep students from getting severely injured, keep them conscious during a crash, and will allow students to self-evacuate the bus in the case of an emergency. The three-point belts, he said, help maintain mobility, but the technology does require practice. Installing seatbelts, Baxter noted, is another training opportunity.
“To me it’s about injury reduction,” he said.
Reasbeck added this is a statistic she’s going to share with drivers. She will also bring back a training element that Fischer shared, in which bus drivers are blindfolded in the bus to see if they can open the roof hatch and find themselves to the back door to evacuate in the case of a fire.
“If you’re in a situation where you can’t see, you still need to be able to get off the bus,” she said, adding that his demonstrations were very interesting.
One suggestion Fischer provided for safety meetings was having drivers conduct them. He advised breaking the drivers up into 12 groups, assigning each group a month and giving them safety topics for each month. This, he said, puts the research and responsibility on the drivers. Then he advised testing everyone in the class to ensure they were paying attention.
Denny Coughlin, owner of the School Bus Training Company, agreed. He noted that the best way to learn something is to teach it. He added that if student transporters don’t document the completion of training, then there is no way to prove they were there.
Misty Horttor, the route coordinator for Elko County School District, told STN her district follows a sheet of protocols such as who is to be contacted in the case of an emergency, which is reviewed every year. She noted that presenters will also come and provide demonstrations on fire extinguishers, for example, to the drivers.
“We have multiple avenues for training throughout the year as well as during the summer,” she added, noting that her goal for coming to the class was ensuring that Elko County is doing everything it can to not have any fatalities or accidents.
“If there was anything we could do – train better or take the next step – that was our goal [for attending],” she said.
Fischer provided an outline, including obtaining as much data as possible at the scene of the collision, on what to do when there’s a school bus crash for the purpose of investigating and preventing the next incident. He advised not to worry about the courtroom, but instead to worry about the job at hand.
Fischer also advised that at a collision site, one should be getting pictures and drawings of the scene, showing where the vehicles hit, came to rest, skid mark distance, roadway type, and distance from the marked poles on the side of the road, etc.
In terms of investigation follow-up, Fisher noted that it’s important to interview the bus driver and to review their actions and patterns leading up to the collision. He advised for those districts that have video cameras on board to spot-check video files and use the footage for driver training.
He also advised having an operations lawyer present when speaking with students and/or their parents regarding the incident and their injuries. Plus, he said, administer a drug test of the bus driver within 32 hours and alcohol tests within three hours of a crash.
Fischer added that it’s important to have documentation on how drivers will be disciplined if an incident was to occur. He added it’s important to provide retraining and documentation.
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Baxter concluded that investigations are about finding inconsistencies between what you say you do and what you actually do. Keep the liability exposure as small as possible, he said. He noted some resources attendees should be familiar with, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has operational and procedural guidelines as well as Guideline 17, section 10 in the CDL manual, the National Congress on School Transportation the industry uses for self-governance, and individual state laws.
Stanley Moya, the safety and security coordinator for Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico, said his goal in taking the class was to collect as much information as possible and to network with others, as well take information back to the district. He noted that even if he walks away from the conference with one new piece of information, it’s worth it.
And Moya already had a notebook full of information on day one.
“In terms of the instructors here, they are very good with capturing the attention [of the room],” he added, noting that he appreciated the speakers offering to send information to the attendees and providing information on where to find additional resources.
