NATIONAL COALITION OF SCHOOL BUS SAFETY NEWS UP TO DEC. 2003

Study: 3 of 5 School Bus Drivers Have Violations
Study Counts Violations In Personal Vehicles

May 27, 2003

INDIANAPOLIS -- A spotty driving record in Indiana can get a driver's license suspended, cost hundreds of dollars in fines and even lead to jail time.

What it won't necessarily do, a study by The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne found, is keep a person from getting a job as a school bus driver.

Of the state's 21,000 current and former bus drivers, 3 out of 5 have at least one traffic violation on their records, the newspaper reported Monday.

The study counted violations committed in personal vehicles, not school buses, but 1,662 were cited for two or more violations after becoming bus drivers, and more than 400 had their licenses suspended after they were certified.

The offenses ranged from speeding -- the most common -- to drunken driving and habitual traffic offenses. Fifty-four drivers were cited for drug or alcohol-related charges after they were hired by schools.

Twenty-four drivers were cited for improperly passing a school bus -- including four who were convicted after they became bus drivers. Those four still are certified to drive school buses.

Some officials and drivers, however, say there is little correlation between how a person drives his personal car and how he handles a school bus full of children.

"Despite what happens in their personal vehicle, they are different people when they get behind the wheel of a bus," said Mitch Stookie, transportation director for South Adams School District.

Unlike some states that set standards for hiring school bus drivers, Indiana allows school officials to set their own, and those standards vary.

"It's not really our job to enforce the licensing of the drivers," said Rebecca Biggs, a spokeswoman for Indianapolis Public Schools, the state's largest district.

"Obviously, we wouldn't take somebody who has no license or a suspended license, but the enforcement is really through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, who makes a determination when that license is pulled."

Some districts say they will not accept anyone with a drunken driving conviction, but others might if the conviction was several years ago and the driver had kept a clean record since.

The main requirement is that a person have a valid commercial driver's license, which requires drug and alcohol testing.

"If it's been several years old and they've kept their record clean, then we usually will give them a chance," said John Molnar, transportation director for the Hammond school district. "And we usually tell them when we hire them, 'One accident and you're out of here."'

Until the recession, school districts sometimes had trouble finding enough drivers willing to drive a bus for wages that sometimes were as low as $8.50 an hour.

"There used to be a major shortage of bus drivers nationwide, especially in the major metropolitan areas," said Norman Mars, a district manager for Laidlaw Inc., which contracts bus service with school districts in Marion County and Gary.

"You've got a certain number of seats to fill, and sometimes you may not be as selective as you want to be under those conditions," he said.

Carrie Pavey, 34, had nine violations before she was hired as a bus driver for Marion Community Schools. In the seven years since, she has received received three citations for not wearing a seat belt, five for having no insurance and three for speeding.

"Truthfully, if I was the director I would not hire somebody with a horrible driving history like mine," said Pavey.

Officials have tightened guidelines since she was hired, and Pavey, who has not driven a bus since October 2000, now works as a bus aide.

Jeffrey Bartlett had 18 tickets, mostly for speeding, when Fort Wayne's school district hired him in late 1996. School officials said Bartlett worked about a year.

But Bartlett said the tickets do not reflect how he drove a bus and it's misguided to focus on infractions such as speeding in a personal car.

Cedric Alexander, who has accumulated six speeding tickets in his 10 years as a Fort Wayne school bus driver, agrees.

"All of my tickets were on the highway out of state," he said. "I drive my car at the speed I want to. The bus is a different story."

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.

back to News

top