The Sidney School District is looking forward to safely transporting students to and from school every day. Surprisingly, according to the National Highway Safety Administration, students are nearly eight times safer riding to school in a school bus than with their own parents; however, the school district and parents can still make bus travel even safer by following certain guidelines.
The district requests that parents use designated drop-off and pick-up zones, and before and after school, parents are not to use the oval drives or bus lanes for drop-off and pick-up. Most importantly, no vehicle may legally pass a stopped bus when the “stop arm” is flashing. If a driver violates the flashing stop-arm, a camera on the bus will photo the car, license plate, and sometimes the driver may lose insurance coverage.
For the students’ safety, all bus drivers in the district must meet mandatory federal and state requirements. Bus drivers must have a pre-employment criminal background check; pass a medical exam every two years; participate in random drug testing; and pass rigorous commercial driver’s license, CPR, and first aid tests. Finally, bus drivers are subject to frequent driver license checks for traffic violations.
The buses themselves must meet requisite legal mandates, which include:
- Annual inspections that maintains buses in safe operating condition
- Be the nationally recognizable yellow color
- Have black “School Bus” lettering
- Have reflective markings on bus exterior
- Semi-annual evacuation drills by all students
- Cross view mirrors for better driver views
- Amber/red flashing lights
- Crossing Arm to force students crossing the road to walk away from the bus
- Stop Arm to provide traffic control protections for children crossing the road
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