{"id":1614,"date":"2014-08-20T13:08:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T17:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/?p=1614"},"modified":"2015-12-28T13:22:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T18:22:07","slug":"maryland-drivers-continue-to-skirt-school-bus-stop-arm-laws-msde-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/maryland-drivers-continue-to-skirt-school-bus-stop-arm-laws-msde-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Drivers Continue To Skirt School Bus Stop Arm Laws, MSDE Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

One-Day Survey By School Bus Drivers Shows Uptick In Violators, But Decline From Record Levels<\/em><\/h3>\n

For Immediate Release \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Contact: Bill Reinhard, 410-767-0486
\nDrivers continue to ignore the stop arms on school buses at an alarming rate, a new Maryland State Department of Education-sponsored survey has revealed.<\/p>\n

Stop arms swing out from a bus and lights flash whenever it is making an on-roadway student pick-up.\u00a0 A total of 3,505 violations of school bus stop arms were recorded on a single day last spring.\u00a0 The rate is up more than 100 from 3,392 violations recorded last year, but remains sharply lower than the rate found in the initial survey in 2011, when more than 7,000 violations were recorded.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaryland schools are beginning to open, and all drivers must focus on the safety of our students.\u00a0 It is illegal to pass a bus with its stop arm extended and its lights flashing,\u201d said State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery.\u00a0 \u201cWhile progress has been made since our bus drivers first launched this survey four years ago, more work must be done. There is nothing more precious than our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

MSDE coordinated the survey in April along with school transportation directors in all 24 school systems.\u00a0 It is considered a snapshot of illegal activity on the roads.\u00a0 Seventy-two percent of Maryland school bus drivers took part in the survey.<\/p>\n

Violations declined between 2011 and 2013 before increasing this year.\u00a0 Bus drivers witnessed 7,011 violations in 2011, a number that fell to 3,392 in 2013.\u00a0 School systems and bus drivers have been raising awareness about stop arm violations for the past four years.<\/p>\n

Large systems with more buses and bus routes noted the most violators.\u00a0 Montgomery County school bus drivers tallied the most \u2013 893 drivers ignoring the stop arm \u2013 but that was down from 1,078 the previous year.\u00a0 Violations in Baltimore City went from 59 to 428, Prince George\u2019s County increased from 599 to 669, and Anne Arundel County jumped from 338 to 375.\u00a0 Baltimore, Harford and Howard Counties all saw declines.\u00a0 Drivers in five small counties \u2013 Dorchester, Garrett, Kent, Somerset, and Talbot \u2013 did not find a violation.<\/p>\n

The survey was undertaken at the behest of a number of members of the Maryland General Assembly, which has been monitoring school bus safety.\u00a0 The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services is coordinating surveys of this type in all 50 States.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One-Day Survey By School Bus Drivers Shows Uptick In Violators, But Decline From Record Levels
\nFor Immediate Release \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Contact: Bill Reinhard, 410-767-0486
\nDrivers continue to   …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-newsreleases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1614"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}