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Deanie Wimmer reportingGrief counselors attended West Point Elementary today to try to help children cope with the death of a classmate who was hit and killed by his school bus. The incident has reinforced safety practices among drivers. Parents, too, can play a big role in helping kids Stay Safe.
School bus drivers train for railroad crossings and canyon driving, but they can't prepare for what happened at West Point Elementary, when they suspect a little boy ran into the street and got run over by the back wheels of his school bus.
Tom Given, transportation director for Granite School District, said, "It's a nightmare that came true. Our drivers today, it's all they're talking about. When you're watching the news, you can imagine the feelings."
Given gets emotional, even though he oversees transportation at other schools in the Granite District. Bus drivers have a responsibility they take seriously, he says, and they train dozens of hours each year before they can even get on the road. But in light of this tragedy, they're making a plea to parents to become partners in safety, starting with the morning routine of idling cars crowding around the bus stop each morning.
"They're all piling out of cars thinking they're keeping their kids warm, they're keeping them very unsafe," Given said. "When the bus pulls up, the slippery street, particularly now, it's terrible, the kids are slipping and sliding, and their parents are saying, ‘go ahead, go ahead,' and they're running right behind a bus and we don't even see them."
It would be much safer if parents would drop off their kids and have them standing at the stop five minutes before the bus arrives.
"They'd still be better off having their kids wait 15 minutes in the cold; they're not having to walk to school for a half an hour," Given says.
Another rule, teach your kids to stay 10 feet away from the bus on all sides, to avoid being in a blind spot. "We call that the danger zone, 10 feet around the bus. Don't get near it; we can't see you," he says.
One other request is that parents not hand homework, lunch bags or other things through bus windows. To stay out of that danger zone, approach the door and talk to the driver.
