The yellow buses have hit the roads in great numbers. But there’s more to the story than just firing up the engines and driving out of the garage.
We rely on those buses to get our children to and from school safely, every school day, regardless of the weather–and often to get them to and from sporting events and student trips…
Those buses and their drivers operate under numerous state laws and education department rules. They’re inspected twice a year, once within 60 days of the opening of school and another time in the Spring.
In a few weeks, school bus drivers and bus owners go through a review of emergency procedures with the students who ride the buses–such things as getting children off the bus safely in case of an accident and how to deal with emergencies on the bus. …
Highway patrol Captain Tim Hull says all bus drivers have to have special training…and so do their teachers.
Hull says drivers get more training today than they used to when they were just under Commercial Drivers License requirements–on all sorts of things, including the proper distance from a stop to turn on warning lights and the proper distance to extend the "stop" arm.
Generally, school bus drivers are better trained to be on the road than most of the drivers they’ll meet.