NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS 2007

District Can Review Bus Drivers' Files
April 1, 2007

We deserve the details about our bus drivers.

After years of not knowing who was behind the wheel of Wichita school buses, district officials are establishing more oversight of drivers.

On Friday, Durham School Services -- which transports about 20,000 Wichita students -- agreed to allow district officials to review driver files on a regular basis.

Information the district will be allowed to routinely review includes drivers' hire dates and driving records, but whether they fail drug tests will be closed because of employee privacy laws, said district spokeswoman Susan Arensman. Whether complaints about drivers and disciplinary records will be open to the district is under negotiation.

Until recently, the district didn't even get the names of drivers from Durham, said Darren Muci, the district's operations division manager. It now gets a list of drivers every month.

The Eagle filed an open records request and received a list of bus drivers and aides from the school district. In checking the 574 names against the Kansas Department of Transportation's 2001-05 traffic accident reports, The Eagle found:

• Nine Wichita school bus drivers have had two or more accidents from 2001 to 2005 while at the wheel of their bus.

• One of those drivers had five school bus accidents during that time period. Investigators cited inattentive driving as a contributing factor in one and failure to yield in another.

That was news to school transportation officials.

Now they are working to ensure they have more information about drivers "so we can get engaged to the extent necessary and possible," Muci said.

Company policy
Durham, the third-largest private bus contractor in the country, is being paid about $18 million this school year to transport Wichita students.

Drivers are automatically fired for major offenses such as hit and run, driving more than 15 mph over the speed limit and DUI, said B.J. Garcia, regional vice president for Durham Bus Services. The company looks not only for infractions while driving a bus but also while driving personal vehicles off the clock.

But the company categorizes accidents while driving the school bus differently: preventable and unpreventable.

"We judge that by our own criteria because we hold our drivers to a higher standard," he said. "We review every accident and decide how to proceed, whether it's additional training or if it's a dangerous intersection and we have to avoid that area."

Garcia said company policy dictates that if a driver has two preventable accidents within a 36-month period, he or she is fired.

Unpreventable accidents don't count against the driver, he said.

Muci said that the district can ask for the termination of any bus driver for any incident, including excessive traffic violations.

"The district could recommend that such drivers be reassigned or removed from service," he said.

But the ultimate decision to hire or fire a driver is the company's, said Muci and Eric Williams, the district's transportation manager.

Arensman said that the district wasn't seeking action against any of the drivers identified by The Eagle as having multiple school bus crashes because the state traffic accident database does not indicate whether the drivers were at fault.

But under the new process, she said, the district will be able to oversee whether Durham follows its own policy.

The Eagle was able to reach only three of the nine drivers with multiple accidents.

Coleen Hernandez, who said she has driven a bus for five years, was reached by phone and declined to comment other than to say: "I love kids. It's the main reason I took this job."

Eric Vessali's phone was answered by his wife. She confirmed that he is a bus driver and said she was trying to translate the questions to her husband.

"His language is not good," she said. "Somebody talk to us in Persian, we can talk to you."

Christina Bull, the driver who had five accidents while driving a bus, referred all questions to Durham.

"I'm not really interested in being involved," she said.

Garcia repeatedly declined to discuss individual drivers' records.

Issue goes back years
Wrangling over public access to the identity of Wichita bus drivers' names had been going on for years. Because the drivers are not district employees, school district and Durham officials contended that the company did not have to release any information to the public.

But the issue has been highlighted by recent incidents:

• A Durham bus driver took pictures of a 10-year-old last March.

• A school bus attendant undid his pants and urinated into a cup in front of an 8-year-old girl last October.

• A driver was fired hours after a middle school special-education student reported that his driver grabbed him by the neck March 13.

A bill introduced this legislative session would have legally obligated the district to release names of school bus drivers, their salaries and length of service. The bill was ultimately shelved, but supporters secured an agreement from Wichita Superintendent Winston Brooks to allow students' parents to get bus drivers' names on an individual basis if they request them.

Only names are provided
A name is all a parent can get.

The list The Eagle obtained contained no personal identifying information -- such as phone numbers, addresses or birth dates. Because of that, it's not easy for the public to find out about a driver's background.

For example, The Eagle found three names -- all fairly common -- on both the drivers list and the state's Internet registry of sex offenders and violent criminals.

Officials with the school district and Durham told The Eagle that their own searches showed no registered offenders on the drivers list.

But without the personal details, said Sedgwick County Undersheriff Bob Hinshaw, there is no way parents can conduct their own checks -- short of comparing the picture from the online database to the driver.

This school year, Durham began conducting in-state and out-of-state criminal background checks annually, said Garcia.

"A KBI (background check) includes any felony in the state of Kansas or arrest," he said. "It's pretty comprehensive."

BY ICESS FERNANDEZ AND HURST LAVIANA
The Wichita Eagle

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