Parents want to know their kids will get to school and back home safely. People who transport them said many people put their lives at risk every day.
Ivory Gaston has been a bus driver for 13 years.
“I like transporting the kids,” Gaston said.
But, other drivers on the road make him fear for those kids’ safety.
“Be more careful, because they’re dealing with the future,” Gaston said.
He said when he’s loading and unloading children, drivers ignore the red warning lights and speed around the school bus putting kid’s lives at risk.
“A doctor that may have to operate on you one day, you know, a lawyer that would have to defend you one day," Gaston said. "This is what you are putting in jeopardy by going around a school bus.”
Pulaski County Special School District staff said this has been an ongoing issue.
“You have sometimes parents that will drop their children off at a school and you’ll have a school bus stopped dropping students off and they’ll just roll past the stop sign,” operations specialist Charles Anderson said.
Every year, the Arkansas Department of Education encourages bus drivers to take a one-day, state-wide survey on the issue.
Wednesday, bus drivers will have the option to report their findings.
After their shift, they’ll be able to indicate if a vehicle passes them illegally, which side they were on and what direction they were going.
“We want to not only determine the prevalence of instances like this but also what can we do to help promote and encourage school bus safety,” Dept. Of Education Director of Communications Kimberly Friedman said.
There are 238 school districts and in 2018, 194 of them participated.
In that one day, there were 857 reports of illegal passes.
“What we’re hoping is for an increase in participation from bus drivers this year, " Friedman said. "We’d love to see 100 percent of the districts participate, but what we really want to see is that number of instances-we want to see it at zero.”
School officials said this should be every driver’s priority.
“This is somebody’s child, somebody’s niece, somebody’s nephew, somebody’s grandchild who are getting on and off these school buses,” Friedman said.
Arkansas lawmakers recently added legislation last session stating drivers who illegally pass school buses can be fined $500 to $2,500.