South Carolina School Bus Safety

SC laid down guidelines for safety in school buses

LUDHIANA: The Supreme Court had laid down several guidelines to ensure the safety of students travelling in school buses. But the local administration as well as parents seem to be oblivious of these. As, these continue to ply city roads and find takers. Of the over 1,000 schools here, there's hardly any following all the guidelines, like yellow buses with conductors, speed governors and equipped with first-aid kit.

However, there are some residents who want the rules be strictly adhered to. A resident of Model Town , Sujata Sharma, said, "Strict action should be taken to check violations but I have never seen it here." Vikas Jagota of Sarabha Nagar said, "No one seems to be concerned about the rules. So, I have started dropping and picking up my child."

However, there are some residents who want the rules be strictly adhered to. A resident of Model Town , Sujata Sharma, said, "Strict action should be taken to check violations but I have never seen it here." Vikas Jagota of Sarabha Nagar said, "No one seems to be concerned about the rules. So, I have started dropping and picking up my child."

A resident of Agar Nagar, Amreeta Dhaliwal, said she was so fed up with the school buses violating the rules that she thought of meeting the authorities concerned. The transport department had challaned 30 school buses in this month and a minimum fine of Rs 10,000 was imposed on each. On Thursday, the department challaned and fined Rs 15,000 a private school bus that did not have a fitness certificate and whose tax was also due.

A resident of Agar Nagar, Amreeta Dhaliwal, said she was so fed up with the school buses violating the rules that she thought of meeting the authorities concerned. The transport department had challaned 30 school buses in this month and a minimum fine of Rs 10,000 was imposed on each. On Thursday, the department challaned and fined Rs 15,000 a private school bus that did not have a fitness certificate and whose tax was also due.

The Guidelines Buses should be painted yellow School Bus must be written on the vehicle's rear and front It should have a first-aid box Must be fitted with speed governor Windows must have horizontal grills It should have a fire extinguisher School name and telephone number must be written on it Its doors should be fitted with reliable locks There should be space under the seats for school bags.

Educating South Carolina: Where do children rank among state ...

It appears that when faced with the need to provide transportation for all of South Carolina's public schoolchildren to and from their schools, our state's leaders have done what they always do: They compare prices and look for the cheapest way out. It seems that not even the lives and safety of our children are worthy of being a first, or high, priority in state budgeting -- especially not when their lives and safety are competing against such proposals as tax breaks for corporate interests. The average age of a South Carolina school bus is 14 years, five years older than the national bus average age of nine years. Many of the state's buses are much older and lack modern safety features, such as additional emergency exits and anti-lock brakes. The average Palmetto State bus has traveled more than 200,000 miles, and many have clocked more than 400,000 miles.

In 2010, lawmakers appropriated no money to buy buses. But we were lucky: Kentucky called us again. That state "discarded" scores of 18-year-old school buses -- meaning that Kentucky's leaders judged them unfit to transport Kentucky's little children to and from school, even one more day -- and Kentucky put these buses up for auction. We bid on 87 of them and won the right to buy 85 -- which means that Kentucky profited from our highest bids -- at an average price of $3,800. With these, we were able to "retire" some our 26- and 27-year-old buses. In January 2011, we bought 24 used school buses, with an average age of 11 years , from an Alabama school district "that replaced them with new vehicles," according to The State . We used these to "retire" some more of our 23- and 24-year-old buses. Since the legislature didn't appropriate any funding for them, how did the Department of Education pay for them? The State tells us: So it was against this backdrop that our governor this week vetoed a proposal to spend $12.4 million of unclaimed lottery money -- not new appropriations from the General Fund, which would represent a state funding priority, but from a pot of money that inattentive lottery winners never stepped up to claim ; or, not to put too fine a point on it, but FREE MONEY, accidentally available to the state -- on buying slightly-safer school buses for our children. Her Excellency's reason for depriving schoolchildren of slightly-safer school buses paid for with found money?

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