District urges driver safety around school buses

PALMER - After a series of bus accidents — included one fatality — this winter driving season, the Mat-Su Borough School District is urging motorists to be more careful.

“The district bus contractors, First Student, Bunker & Bunker and Glacier View Bus have experienced several accidents this year — most resulting in a bus being rear-ended. We want to remind all drivers that the safety of school children depends on all of us remaining diligent and watchful,” district spokeswoman Catherine Esary wrote in an email distributing a district bus safety press release.

The most recent bus crash happened Tuesday on Beverly Lakes Road near Sourdough Drive. According to an Alaska State Trooper press statement, Matthew Spencer, 18, driving a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am, “lost control of his vehicle crashed into a 2002 International School bus operated by Gary Walker, age 58, of Palmer.”

No one was hurt in that wreck, but there were students onboard the bus at the time. Each vehicle received $1,000 damage.

By far the worst bus wreck of the year happened earlier this month in Talkeetna at Mile 92 Parks Highway. Richard L. Pride Jr., 63, was driving a minivan when he rear-ended a bus that had stopped to let a student off.

Pride wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and died at the scene from his injuries.

One student on the bus — the one who was standing up to get off — had minor injuries that were treated at the hospital.

The scale of the district’s transportation effort is kind of impressive. According to the school district’s statistics from last school year, on any given school day there are 102 regular education bus routes making 408 runs per day and 41 special education buses making 187 runs per day. In the 2010-11 school year, those buses put on 2,530,368 miles.

Among the tips the district offers motorists are:

• Slow down and be careful in school zones. The speed limit there is 20 mph.

• Drive carefully in the early morning and afternoon when buses are out.

• Passing a bus with its flashing red and yellow lights on is illegal; when a bus is stopped, traffic stops.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.