School bus tragedy draws attention, but for how long?
Christena Chance reacted immediately when she first heard about the deaths of three young siblings struck by a motorist at a school bus stop in Rochester.
“I started to cry instantly, ” said Chance, who drives a school bus for Merrillville Community School Corp.
She was one of many school bus drivers in Northwest Indiana who contacted me
Oct. 30 to share the story of that fatal incident in Fulton County, located southeast of our region. The motorist, Alyssa Shepherd, 24, was charged with three felony counts of reckless homicide and one misdemeanor count of passing a school bus while its arm was extended, causing injury .
After her arrest, Shepherd told police that she saw bus lights that morning, but she did not recognize it was a school bus stop until it was too late.
She struck and killed 6-year-old twins Xavier and Mason Ingle, and their older sister, 9-year-old Alivia Stahl, as they crossed the street to board their school bus.
“My first reaction to the awful news was both extreme sadness as well as a feeling of uneasiness,” said Nancy Perez, who drives a school bus for Lake Central School Corp. in south Lake County.
“I believe every bus driver sees himself or herself as being a potential victim of a bus stop traffic violation,” Perez said. “I include the bus driver among the victims because he or she will forever have to live with the consequences of giving that group of students the signal that it was OK to cross the road on that dark morning.”
All the local school bus drivers who contacted me said the driver in Rochester will replay that morning over and over and think of hypothetical alternatives that could have prevented it.
“Unfortunately, it usually takes a tragedy to get people’s attention and participation,” said Perez, whose husband, Rich Perez, also drives a school bus for Lake Central.
“Rich and I pay close attention to these news stories so we can learn from them and hopefully look for ways to keep our kids safer,” she said. “We have noticed that since this story went national, the drivers along each of our routes have been exceptionally courteous, for now .
“But sadly, we expect to see things going back to normal once the sting of this new story gets tucked behind the constant newsfeed of the day ,” Perez said.
Local bus drivers contacted me because two weeks ago I wrote a column on school bus safety, warning that too many motorists are either intentionally disobeying or dangerously oblivious to buses’ extended stop-arm and flashing lights.
(Read that previous column at www.chicagotri bune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptbdavich-school-bus-drivers-complaints-st-1019-story .html)
“Sadly, I think the only people who would take this column to heart would never have run around the buses in the first place, ” said Amanda Poninski, a reader from Munster.
For that column, Freedah Wright, who drives a school bus for Portage Township School District, told me, “It happens every day . Nobody cares. ”
Besides the Rochester fatalities, there were three other school bus accidents in the last week in Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Florida that left two other children dead and five children hospitalized.
It’s taken these tragedies to get motorists to care about school bus safety.
“What is so important that you have to speed, disobey traffic signs or lights, and run stop-arms on a school bus?” asked Chance, who was angry when she contacted me. “If you are always in that big of a hurry, then get your ass up earlier and leave for wherever you are going earlier.
“Stop to think about what you are doing because the kids you could possibly hit could very well be your own child or your neighbor’s child,” she added.
Last month, Chance invited me onto her school bus for a ride-along to see firsthand how motorists casually ignore school bus safety procedures. Her school district denied my request.
Perez, who’s been driving a school bus for five years, said she spoke Oct. 31 with one of Lake Central’s newest bus drivers.
She said that this story from Rochester has given her “some reservations about remaining a bus driver,” Perez said. “We also talked about the shortage of school bus drivers in just about every district, and we wondered if the dangers at bus stops have contributed to this lack of drivers. ”
One veteran school bus driver told me that all drivers need to make peace with the inherent risks that come with the job.
“When people are in their cars, they seem to view other vehicles on the road as obstacles in their way , including school buses,” she said.
Perez added, “Being courteous to one another on the road isn’t typically our first reaction if our daily commute is interrupted in any way.”
Shepherd told police she had three children in her backseat during the Rochester crash. She likely had a lapse in judgment while behind the wheel. I’ve had similar mental lapses as a driver. Within a few seconds, her life crashed into despair, heartache and lifelong regret.
Tippecanoe school officials said they have since moved that bus stop from a state road to a local park.
“In addition, I am establishing a transportation safety review committee which will examine all of our bus stop locations to ensure our children are transported safely, ” Tippecanoe V alley School Corp. Superintendent Blaine Conley said in a statement.
Hopefully , school districts across Northwest Indiana and beyond also will examine their bus stops.
“Drivers need to remember that school buses transport young students who are totally dependent on their bus drivers for their personal safety when getting on and off the bus,” Perez said. “We all share in that responsibility. ”