The bottom line according to TCAPS bus drivers is that it is something that happens everyday, it is illegal, and it could lead to the death of a child. Spend much time hanging around with the drivers and you will quickly find out that everyone one of them has a story to tell you about somebody that blew right by their flashing red lights and extended stop sign. According to transportation director Phillip Haldaman the so called "flasher passers" are pretty common, "it probably happens at least a dozen times a day." The biggest problem according to TCAPS is that when those bus stop signs appear, young excited students will soon follow.
As Haldaman explains, "I don't think people realize the depth of seriousness of running the red lights on a school bus. It's an extremely unsafe practice and yet it happens everyday." In fact it's often the topic of discussion when drivers gather before or after their routes at the TCAPS bus center. Haldaman says he often overhears drivers recounting the number of flasher passers they saw today "I hear they say "we had five today, in this one area, and some other driver would say I had two, well I had one, pretty soon the numbers go up pretty fast." And for this group of bus drivers, which proudly states that child safety is its top priority, failing to stop, has reached a problem level. Concerned by the flasher passers, TCAPS drivers are fighting back. Haldaman explains that when bus drivers see someone blow by their stop lights, they "will just grab their pad and pen and write down the plate number or the students will yell it out "hey that was license number so and so", because now the kids are pretty well trained to watch for that sort of thing too."
When the driver gets back, they fill out form with as much information as possible, and then TCAPS faxes it to the sheriff. According to Haldaman, "they adjudicate those fairly quickly. They have a deputy, Charles Jetters, who is assigned to review all of those. He called to say he has written a couple of tickets on those in the past week."
So how does flashing passing happen so much? Well in the course of a day a lot of motorists will legally and illegally pass these busses. Haldaman says "we'll put on about 10,000 miles a day, in a school bus fleet of about 120 school busses." But perhaps a more staggering number is 7. Haldaman explains the significance, "We had seven wrecks in the past week. Mostly rear enders where people slammed into the back of the school bus."
You read right, 7 accidents in 7 days. Once again, TCAPS says it's mostly other drivers not paying attention to the bus when those red flashing lights come on either when they are dropping kids off, or at other places where busses have to stop like railroad crossings.
Haldaman has this advice for drivers when they see a school bus; "A school bus is really a mobile traffic central device so it's like having a red light traffic signal going down the road. We all especially the drivers who are around these school busses need to be very focused so that they don't run those lights and potentially cause a fatal crash accident."
And while paying close attention to busses is always recommended, Haldaman says extra attention is warranted at least twice a day, "this is a time especially going to work and especially coming home in the afternoon they need to be very focused because there is an awful lot of activity that our 120 school busses are engaged in those few short minutes of the day where we are releasing an awful lot of students. And we need to stop traffic in both directions in order to safely get them off at the school bus."
I spoke with Deputy Jetters with the sheriff's department. He told if you get a ticket, it could cost you up to $240, 100 hours of community service, and 3 points on your license. He says most of the time he is able to track down the driver. Those drivers often admit to passing the bus but say they were distracted by cell phones, the radio, or simply not paying attention to the road.
So what do you think? What do you think should be the punishment for flashing passing? Have you seen anyone do it? Have you done it? Let us know. Leave a comment below.
