Drivers urged to ‘share the road’

Bus safety both inside and out – that’s what Sonoma Valley school officials are trying to teach next week as part of a coast-to-coast effort to raise awareness among both drivers and students.
“Sometimes those kids act like little gray squirrels – there’s no telling what they’ll do,” said John Hill Jr., bus-driver trainer with the Sonoma Valley Unified School District, explaining “Stop On Red, Kids Ahead” – the focus of this year’s National School Bus Safety Week, which begins Monday.
Held the third week of October since the early 1990s, National School Bus Safety Week will be observed at Valley schools with simulated bus evacuation drills and a poster contest. Winners of the latter receive savings bonds and the chance for their posters to be used in next year’s campaign, “Avoid Harm, Obey the Stop Arm,” referring to the swing-mounted stop sign on the back of many school buses.
Hill, who’s worked for the district for 16 years, said bus safety is a concern not only for road-sharing motorists but also for passengers. He noted that California law requires school-bus drivers to exit their vehicles and act as crossing guards, but said that doesn’t always help to slow drivers.
“There have been, over the years, a couple of incidents where the students are getting ready to cross the road and cars have driven by the bus driver, or they drive by the school bus while the red lights are flashing,” he said. Both behaviors are illegal under section 22454 of the state vehicle code, which requires drivers to stop when the bus does.
But Hill also said students also have a responsibility to behave themselves at bus stops – by not playing in the street, and by moving back along the sidewalk when the bus arrives so everyone can enter safely.
“We need to be paying attention here,” Hill said. “Some people do stop, and that’s wonderful – when we see that, we wave, nod our head and say, ‘Thank you.’”