McKinney ISD has installed new test arms to try to stop drivers from zipping past as children are loading and unloading from buses.[/caption]According to MISD officials, bus drivers are reporting that roughly 20 times a day drivers zip past when buses are loading or unloading children, leading officials to expect roughly 3,500 such occasions by the end of the school year.
Bruce Austin, a driver for Durham School Services, the company that provides bus transportation for McKinney ISD said the reports are "baffling."
“It’s almost like they resent us being out there," he said in a news release. "Like we’re a nuisance or something. So, [as a driver] you’re on pins and needles because you give your students the OK to step out, and here comes this car…and they’re coming like you’re not even sitting there. I don’t know if they literally just don’t see the lights and the sign or just don’t care.”
Through a pilot program, MISD and Durham School Services are taking new measures to put a stop to the problem by replacing some of the existing 2 feet long bus stop arms with new arms that extend more than 6 feet across the roadway.
MISD officials said the strategy is gaining traction in some of the more rural areas of the country, and MISD is believed to be the first school district in Texas to implement it. The district has explored other approaches such as bus-mounted cameras, but the legal complexity related to enforcement makes that strategy unrealistic, officials said.
The new stop arms, which cost about $1,000 each, were installed on 10 buses that run routes in high traffic areas such as SH 5 and US 380 where the most frequent offenders are located. If the measure proves effective, MISD will consider adding additional units.
Sandra Ellis has been driving buses for 20 years and drives one of those high traffic routes.
“It’s helping some because they see [the new 6-foot bus arms] sticking out there," she said in a news release. "You still have some of them that will run it. Some of them will go into the turn lane, in the median to pass it. I even had a big truck go around it, but it’s helping some.”
