October marks National School Bus Safety Month, with the week of Monday, October 18 – Friday, October 22, 2021, being designated as National School Bus Safety Week. Throughout the week, Abington School District will recognize bus safety with varying events and activities districtwide, including several new initiatives for 2021.
On social media, safety tips and best practices will be shared throughout the week on Abington School District’s channels, in partnership with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Community Information and Education. Tuesday, October 19th will also serve as a bus driver appreciation day in recognition of the critical role our Transportation Department plays in ensuring the safety of our students and maintaining a safe ride to school. Tips and best practices will also be provided to drivers to make sure they are keeping themselves safe as well when transporting students.
Operation Safe Stop
The main event for School Bus Safety Week, however–which is observed annually in the District–is Operation Safe Stop, this year scheduled for Wednesday, October 20th. Held in partnership with the Abington Township Police Department, it is an initiative conducted in communities across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is organized by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). It is a public awareness and enforcement effort to educate the motoring public that passing a stopped school bus, when children are loading or unloading, is both dangerous and illegal. Each year, through Operation Safe Stop, law enforcement agencies, school transportation providers, pupil transportation associations and PennDOT combine their efforts to raise public awareness about the potential consequences and reduce the occurrence of illegal school bus passes.
As part of Abington School District’s efforts, problem areas are identified by the District’s Supervisor of Transportation, and police officers then monitor those trouble spots in order to catch, and issue tickets to, those who violate the School Bus Stopping Law. Additionally, throughout the day, bus drivers monitor any violations that they witness, which they record and send to PennDOT for reporting purposes.
The theme for this year’s Operation Safe Stop is “Be Safe – Know the Danger Zone,” which reminds students to stay 10 feet from the bus as it approaches the bus stop and while loading and unloading. The “Danger Zone” is the area on all sides of the bus where children are in the most danger of not being seen by the driver (ten feet in front of the bus where the driver may be too high to see a child, ten feet on either side of the bus where a child may be in the driver’s blind spot, and the area behind the school bus).
According to the PennDOT website, Pennsylvania’s School Bus Stopping Law requires motorists to stop at least 10 feet away from school buses that have their red lights flashing and stop arm extended. Motorists must stop when they are behind the bus, meeting the bus or approaching an intersection where a bus is stopped. Motorists following or traveling alongside a school bus must also stop until the red lights have stopped flashing, the stop arm is withdrawn, and all children have reached safety. If physical barriers such as grassy medians, guide rails or concrete median barriers separate oncoming traffic from the bus, motorists in the opposing lanes may proceed without stopping.
For more information about Operation Safe Stop, please visit https://www.dmv.pa.gov/Driver-Services/School-Bus-Drivers/Pages/Operation-Safe-Stop.aspx.
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