- Alpine School District bus drivers reported fewer red light violations since an initial KSL report on Jan. 21.
- Matt Burch's awareness campaign has reduced violations from eight per day to one every two weeks.
- The Alpine District now uses bus cameras for enforcement, but Burch still advocates for stricter penalties.
HIGHLAND — Bus drivers in the Alpine School District said it was happening in alarming numbers — drivers blowing past school buses that had their red stop lights activated.
"I didn't know what to do," admitted Matt Burch, a school bus driver with regular routes through neighborhoods at the north end of Utah County up to Suncrest.
In mid-January, he said he was personally witnessing as many as eight "stop arm violations" per day, where drivers would ignore the flashing red lights on his bus when he was loading and unloading children.
"You're endangering children — especially the little ones," Burch said.
Burch helped catalyze an awareness campaign as the district got its schools and police departments on the same page at a time when numbers were not trending in a positive direction. As many as 200 violations were happening district-wide on any given day.
He also reached out to KSL, which brought attention to the issue in a report on Jan. 21. On Wednesday, nearly two months later, Burch returned with some good news.
"People started stopping," Burch said during an interview. "We went from eight to maybe four to three to two, and now, currently, we're doing maybe one stop arm violation maybe every two weeks, and the only thing that changed is the story."
Burch also shared multiple letters from parents grateful for the additional attention to safety and letters from drivers who had made a poor choice and apologized.
"'I'm deeply sorry, I regret this,'" Burch read from one letter.
Officials said Alpine School District has prioritized enforcement, using cameras on buses in recent years to document drivers behaving badly and then forwarding on cases with sufficient evidence to police.
"I've got several comments from other bus drivers — even outside of Alpine School District — about that this is impacting their stop arm violations," Burch said of the efforts.
Burch said when it came to the issue, there was still more improvement to be made. He said he would continue to push lawmakers for changes to laws that create tougher penalties for violators.
While celebrating the positive development, Burch said this was no time for drivers to ease up on their caution.
"Those lights go on, (it) doesn't matter if it has a stop sign, you've got to stop," Burch said. "Utah, keep it up, we need to keep kids safe, regardless of the circumstances."
