Students from each elementary school’s kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes were taught how to safely enter and exit the bus and what safety measures to take when walking from the bus to the sidewalk.
This may seem like a small demonstration to most, but according to Gordon County Schools Safety Coordinator, Toni Queen, the safety program has a big impact.
“A bus is tall, it’s big and it is solid. We make sure the kids stop and look and know exactly what to do,” said Queen.
The main focus of the safety day was to encourage students to be aware of their surroundings.
“We teach each one of them to look around all of the bus corners before stepping away from the front of the bus,” said Queen. “We teach them how to ride the school bus safely. We go over these safety rules as well.”
The safety training came just weeks after a five-year-old Georgia boy was struck and killed after exiting a bus, but Queen assures that school buses are the safest mode of transportation for students.
The system’s transportation department has put several measures in place to assure student safety. Queen says that from the moment a potential applicant applies for a driver position to the time an employee sees the last stu-dent step off the bus hundreds of safety measures are in place.
Driver applicants under go a rigorous screening process, which includes background checks, finger printing at both a state and national level. After that process is complete drivers must then undergo four days of classroom training, road and parking lot tests, a two hour license test and then a three day drive along.
“Drivers have to be prepared, their job is hard and they have 72 kids on a bus they are responsible for,” Queen said.
Safety standards do not slack after a driver comes on board, Queen says each driver performs both a pre and post route check to make sure the bus is in top shape.
But it isn’t just the driver’s responsibility to keep the kids safe while on the bus, Queen said; it’s a community ef-fort.
“We always tell people to look for the eight warning lights” Queen said.
When a bus has come to a full stop under Georgia law drivers in all lanes must stop as well.
“If there is not divide between the lanes like a wall, each car on both side of the road must come to a stop,” Queen reiterates.
When a bus is stopping, the lights on both the front and back begin to flash or turn red, and a stop sign on the drivers side will swing out, accompanied by a crossing fate.
Queen urges drivers to stay at least two car lengths behind a bus stopping, if possible. She also said that drivers are trained to drive defensively and predict potential safety issues.
“We try to always perceive what happens in the future,” Queen said.
The Gordon County School system sends out 79 buses daily.
“It is a big responsibility,” Queen said.
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