School bus accidents
Accidents involving Warren County school buses are down this year compared to the last five years, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol:
2004: 50 total accidents — 12 with injury, 38 with property damage
2005: 35 total accidents — 7 with injury, 28 with property damage
2006: 53 total accidents — 11 with injury, 42 with property damage
2007: 34 total accidents — 5 with injury, 29 with property damage
2008: 37 total accidents — 6 with injury, 31 with property damage
2009*: 21 total accidents — 4 with injury, 17 with property damage
* 2009 numbers are provisional and do not include the Nov. 24 Kings accident or the Dec. 1 Franklin accident
MIDDLETOWN — Some area parents believe that the biggest challenge in school bus safety is the children themselves.
“Children are noisy and don’t always like each other,” said Celeste Didlick-Davis, whose son is a senior at Middletown High School and who also is a youth pastor and so deals with busing issues with children all over the city. “School buses are not a user-friendly environment, and the bus drivers could use more support than we are able to give them, but we don’t have that many volunteers who are willing to ride along.
“We put a lot of pressure on the drivers and the system,” she said. “The whole process is a challenge because our resources are taxed, but I think they do a surprisingly good job with what they have.”
Two kindergartners this week were among the latest victims of school bus accidents. They — along with the bus driver — were taken to a hospital with minor injuries following an accident Tuesday, Dec. 1, involving a Franklin City Schools bus.
That was the fifth accident — including two in the Lakota Local School District — in less than two weeks involving school buses in Butler and Warren counties.
In both Lakota wrecks — neither of which involved citing the bus drivers — the district’s bus-service provider, Petermann, followed state and district policies and regulations to ensure safety of students, officials said.
Petermann manages buses for Kings, Lakota, Monroe, Middletown, Madison, Butler County Head Start and Butler Tech.
Other districts say immediate action following an accident is a prime concern.
“When there is an accident, you don’t have time to make quick decisions,” said Becky Hill, who helped develop Lebanon’s bus accident protocol. “Everyone knows what they are responsible for, from calling paramedics and parents to filing reports. Our plan helps make sure everyone responds appropriately during a chaotic time.”
The recent series of school bus accidents in Butler and Warren counties has increased the spotlight on bus safety.
Bus drivers must meet stringent requirements to get behind the wheel of a bus, including background checks, health physicals and random drug testing, said Keith Harms, safety director for Petermann.
When an accident happens, many factors determine if the driver keeps his or her job, he said. Driving records are monitored and drivers are held accountable for citations, even in personal vehicles. At OVI checkpoints, even in a personal vehicle, Harms said bus drivers’ blood alcohol limit is 0.04, versus the public standard of 0.08.
“They really have a much narrower and a less forgiving penalty system than the normal driver,” Harms said.
This year, in Butler County there have been more than 40 accidents involving school buses, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol. This signals a decrease from 2006, when there were 79 accidents throughout the year.
Meanwhile, 21 bus accidents have been reported in Warren County, according to the highway patrol. That’s a decrease from 2008 when there were 37 wrecks and down from 2006 when there were 53.
Steps are taken after each accident, according to Petermann. First, the driver gets to a safe place and turns off the bus, removing the keys. He or she calls dispatch to report the incident and assesses injuries and leads an evacuation if necessary. If the driver is unable to communicate, specific students on the bus have been trained to operate the radio and how to push the emergency break button as well as how to evacuate students.
The dispatch center calls 911. If an injury is involved, a district representative typically is sent to the scene, he said, and phone calls are made to parents. Typically, another bus is sent to transport uninjured students.
Petermann representatives go to the hospitals to ensure all parties involved are OK, he said. The driver is escorted to a drug and alcohol test location, or a test will be administered at a hospital if the driver is injured. This test is given to Petermann employees no matter what type of accident, though state law requires it if the situation involves injuries, fatalities or towing of vehicles.
The driver must wait until that drug screen comes back to drive again, Harms said, and he or she must go through two hours of retraining, specifically at the scene of the incident to practice avoidance in the future and discuss what went wrong.
In addition to 12 classroom hours and 12 driving hours to initially get certified, drivers review safety skills during four hours of in-service training at the beginning of each year, and they continue that training throughout the year, Harms said. And as a result of training and strict regulations, he said, minor accidents are decreasing.
Lindsey Hilty, Richard O Jones, Marie Rossiter and Eric Schwartzberg contributed to this report.