The Eastern Pulaski School Corporation hired Mick Armstrong as Transportation Director and Bus Mechanic at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. School bus safety is his focus.
According to the Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini’s article from August 25, 2015, in the United States “over 12,000 school-aged children are injured in school bus accidents each year.” Maintaining mechanically sound buses and ensuring drivers are well-trained keep Eastern Pulaski from being part of those statistics.
Armstrong has implemented new procedures for the bus drivers, including a daily pre-trip inspection checklist to help identify issues with buses before they become big problems. He also has each bus that does not report an issue come in for preventive maintenance.
Bus driver safety compliance is another aspect of his job. Each driver must go through state mandated safety meetings every year, keep their driving record clean, and have a DOT physical every two years. Armstrong passes along information about accidents and new laws during bus meetings held on the last Wednesday of each month.
“Whenever a bus accident happens anywhere in the United States, we discuss what happened, why it happened, and ways to make sure it doesn’t happen to us,” says Armstrong.
Students, parents, and drivers can help maintain a safe bus ride for the students. Each bus driver has rules to help maintain discipline. This keeps the bus driver from being distracted while driving. Buses usually maintain a predictable schedule of stops. Drivers can help keep stops save by paying attention to the times they are in the area. A bus driver will start their yellow, or amber, warning lights to let drivers know when a stop is coming. By slowing down and preparing to stop, drivers can avoid stop-arm violations. Eastern Pulaski makes every effort to pick students up on the door-side of the bus, but sometimes students must cross traffic. Students are can be unpredictable, and may dart back into traffic if a paper flies away, or an iPad is forgotten on the bus.
Although deaths from stop arm violations are rare, according to an article by Dan Carden, School bus cameras could nab stop-arm violators, in Indiana “404 drivers were convicted of stop-arm violations” in 2013.
