Senator Robert Singer on School Buses in Lakewood

we've seen in the last number of weeks several accidents with both school bus uh children departing from school buses being hit by cars and of course in a couple instances where where there are accidents with young people and other vehicles um this is becoming a critical situation in language we all are concerned about the safety of our children it is our number one concern and certainly my parent sends their child off to school in the morning they expect them to come back safely into their home so i think we have to take a hard look at this in a way i'm suggesting that the most recent accident that we formulate a task force headed by traffic safety in the police department maybe the police chief be part of that uh looking for the people from transportation from the school board maybe some of the bus drivers themselves on it and some other people involved in that issue maybe from the county to come together the comprehensive plan and what we can do to assure the safety of our young people from departing buses there's no question about it but part of this problem certainly is public awareness i like many other people have seen flashing lights going on for a period of time and then turning to red uh maybe that's too long a period that people are trying to pass that bus saying i see yellow and and all of a sudden i'm through it but keep in mind when the bus stops there is an arm that goes out that means that young person has to go all the way out past the front of the bus to make that that pass in front of it and that means that a car has to be going at a certain rate of speed not to be able to stop including weather conditions whether it's raining or snowing this and that so i think we have to come together comprehensive plan to see what we can do locally to make it safer for our children and then if there are things that need to be done in the state i would then come in to play and make sure that we would either change state state ordinances or turn around and make state law different i think it's important to understand though that it has to be a town-wide issue um we transport anywhere from 24 to 28 000 children every day that means children are picked up and children are brought home there are many many buses on the road and many many uh possibilities for accidents to happen with that many kids being transported we have to make sure that we we kind of shore up any kind of problem we're having and obviously we're having some problem and again i reiterate i think part of this public awareness maybe people understand about about bus safety what is their responsibility as drivers how they should should react when they see flashing lights and what exactly they should do and whether it's an ad campaign or a public servant campaign both on radio both in print we should be doing that just like the township took on the responsibility of people using reflector belts uh and walking on on shabbos when it's dark working home or or when they uh are out at night to wear them it's the same type of thing we have to take that same concern as to how how to address the problem of people driving uh where there are young people getting off the buses and what responsibility drivers have and this is a community responsibility um and i think the awareness is one thing uh seeing what we have to do for local ordinances uh brings into play the group i mentioned and then the third thing is state statute and what we have to do on the state level i think with a combined issue of all of us getting together on this um moving forward in the right direction i will be able to make our our young people safer getting on north buses attachment