The Akron Legal News

Motorists could face stiffer fines for school bus infractions

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 17, 2019

A plan in the Ohio Senate calls for enhanced penalties for motorists who flout state traffic laws specifically relating to school buses.

Legislators this week heard further testimony on Senate Bill 134, which proposes a doubling of the fine to $1,000 for illegally passing a stopped school bus from either direction.

Additionally, a driver could face an increased license suspension and a fine increase of $250 for each violation during a 10-year period.

The bill's sole sponsor Republican Sen. Theresa Gavarone of Bowling Green said her bill is in direct response to a growing problem across the state.

She cited data collected between 2015 and 2017, which recorded nearly 4,200 drivers in Ohio were ticketed for illegally passing a bus.

"This issue really came to the forefront for me after learning about two incidents involving students from schools in my district," the lawmaker told senators seated for the Transportation Commerce and Workforce Committee. "The first was a car that crashed into an Eastwood school bus as the result of not stopping and the second involved a bus from Archbold schools that was hit by a speeding semi-truck."

The latter instance, she said, was recorded and featured in the national news because two children narrowly escaped the accident.

"Fortunately, no students were hurt in those accidents, but nearly a decade ago in my district 15-year-old Morgan Duris was hit and killed after a driver going 15 miles over the speed limit failed to stop for her bus," Gavarone continued. "Believe it or not, that driver was never sentenced to a day in prison.

"These incidents are all too common, and I believe the bill before you will lessen them and keep our children safer as they go to and from school."

SB 134 additionally features provisions to enhance penalties for drivers who, as the result of failing to stop for a school bus, hits or kills a student. Current law requires an offending motorist whose car hits a student after failing to stop of the bus is subject to a fourth-degree felony.

SB 134 would make the offense a third-degree felony and a second-degree felony in the event the student is killed.

A person is prepared to pass a school bus filled with children, they should be even more prepared to suffer a bigger penalty, the lawmaker reasoned.

Olentangy Local School District Transportation Director Lori Carter-Evans said stop arm-activated cameras could greatly help her drivers record offending motorists.

SB 134 requests an appropriation of $500,000 over the two-year budget cycle for the purchase and installation of cameras by school districts.

A survey of more than 130 Olentangy school bus drivers recorded illegal bus passing in March. The study found:

• 44% of the illegal passing occurred in the morning;

• 52% were illegally passed in the afternoon;

• 94% were passed as approaching the bus from the front; and

• 6% were passed from the rear.

"Olentangy school bus drivers are committed to keeping students safe," Carter-Evans told lawmakers. "They are responsible for knowing where students are waiting before they step on the bus, what students are doing, to a certain degree, while they are on the bus and where they are heading immediately when they step off the bus.

"To ensure students are safe when they leave the bus, drivers need to know whether they are crossing to get to their residence with the driver's signal or remaining on the side the bus drops off."

A final provision of the bill would designate August School Bus Safety Awareness month in an effort to increase awareness of the need to properly stop when a school bus is loading and unloading students.

"Quite simply, there is no excuse for illegally passing a stopped school bus," Gavarone said. "Getting to your destination 15 seconds earlier is not more important than the lives of our children."

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