The Times Free Press reported that two Hamilton County lawmakers said Tuesday they will introduce legislation requiring all Tennessee school buses to be equipped with seat belts in the wake of Monday’s deadly crash.
Rep. Gerald McCormick and Rep. JoAnne Favors said the bipartisan legislation is needed in a state that has no such requirement. McCormick said his intent is to require all current and new buses to be retrofitted for three-point seat belts.
“It’s time to have that conversation” about Tennessee school bus safety, including seat belt requirements, Gov. Bill Haslam said Tuesday.
“We had a wreck last year in Knoxville with a school bus, last week in Nashville, and obviously, the tragedy in Chattanooga,” Haslam told. “I think it’s time to have all the parties come to the table and have a thoughtful conversation about what can we do to make our school buses as safe as we can.”
Most buses don’t have seat belts, and school authorities and operators have been resistant to changes in state law requiring them to do so, citing enormous expenses.
A bill requiring new buses to be equipped with seat belts languished in the 2015-2016 General Assembly despite the Knoxville school bus tragedy.
But McCormick said he believes a measure can pass during the new 110th General Assembly that starts Jan. 10.
“I don’t want to point fingers who was against it because of the expenses,” McCormick said. “I’m sure it will be expensive. But this is an area where the state should certainly step in and help with the expenses and not [make local systems] shoulder the entire burden.”
States with mandatory school seat belt laws include California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York. Texas requires seat belts on school buses purchased after 2010.
The Times Free Press has also reported that new details on the history of the driver and the bus company that employed him have emerged.
The Illinois-based Durham School Services is one of the largest suppliers of school bus services, operating about 13,700 vehicles across the country and employing nearly as many drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Durham was awarded a “satisfactory” safety rating from the agency in July 2015.
Local records show Durham has been named in 21 lawsuits in Hamilton County Circuit Court since 2010. Just over half of those suits ended in minor settlements, records show. Other details were not immediately available because almost all of the case files are in court storage.
Durham records show the company hired another driver in Hamilton County who was deemed “ineligible” for the job after his criminal record turned up in a background check.
Alexander Rodriguez, 35, passed several phases of a rigorous application process in the fall of 2013, but a background check found prior convictions for gun and drug charges. The background check company deemed him “ineligible for hire,” records show.
Applicants are “ineligible” if they have one or more felony or misdemeanor convictions in the last 10 years involving violence, weapons, controlled substances, sex crimes or burglary, according to a record from National Express, LLC., Durham’s parent company. During his application process, Rodriguez was not yet 10 years removed from the 2004 charges. Durham chose to hire him anyway.
Then in 2015, he was arrested and charged with raping a 15-year-old student-passenger in a Super 8 Hotel room. He was employed by Durham at the time.
