School bus scofflaws: Drivers worry lack of bus zone enforcement will kill

PALMER — A lack of school bus zone enforcement is putting Borough children at serious risk as drivers blatantly break the law, according to employees with the district’s largest school bus contractor.

In the past “red right runner” drivers who ignored school bus flashing lights were logged by the bus drivers and reported to Alaska’s State Troopers. Bus drivers provided as much information on the offenders as possible, including tag number, time of the incident, vehicle and driver description, and submitted the report form via fax.

But the submission process could take several days and didn’t always include enough information for any kind of follow-up, officials with the Alaska State Troopers said. And even if the reports did include enough information for a follow-up, the best Troopers could do was give a citation to the vehicle’s registered owner who may not have been the person driving.

Gradually over late last year, the reporting system came to a halt, bus officials said, because the Troopers were not following up with all reports, and bus officials felt turning them in was a waste of time.

“Faxes would be several days after the fact or significantly after the fact,” said Alaska State Trooper Lt. Andrew Gorn, who is stationed in Palmer. “If that’s what we get, you are wasting your time because we can’t do anything with that.”

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough does not have a dedicated police force.

Instead, the Troopers can deploy a patrol unit to catch repeat red light offenders in the act. But those cases are far less frequent than the average of about five drivers who run the lights as a single incident each week, bus officials said.

Gorn said they recommend both bus and other drivers who witness red light runners treat the incidents as REDDI, or “Report Every Dangerous Driver Immediately,” reports and call the infractions in. If a Trooper happens to be nearby, he or she can respond right away.

“We’d like it to be handled more like a REDDI report if the information comes in right away,” Gorn said. “If we get something a day or two later, or three days later, or even later that day that vehicle is long gone and it’s particularly hard to follow-up with.”

First Student’s 112 buses serve 3,200 students, according to officials with the Matanuska-Susitna School District. Two other contractors, Glacier View Transportation and Bunker & Bunker, bus an additional 14 and 169 students, respectively. Last year the trio served over 280 bus stops across the Borough.

Alaska State law requires drivers to halt at least 30 feet from a school bus stopped with flashing red lights. Ignoring that law is a class B misdemeanor and carries an up to $100 fine and six license demerit points.

Nonetheless, officials with First Student said drivers regularly run the red lights, putting student’s getting on and off the bus or crossing the street at serious risk.

First Student driver David Bell said he’s had seven red right runners on his route near Colony High School so far this year, and can recall several incidents over the last school year where children almost faced serious harm from drivers ignoring the lights.

Bell, who has driven buses for two years after retiring from the Air Force, is worried someone is going to be seriously hurt if the offenders aren’t taken seriously.

“I had one driver the other day — she waved at me as she ran my reds. She passed my lights, and waved at me,” he said, incredulously. “These drivers running the reds of these school buses — don’t you realize there’s kids getting off these busses? … I’m just afraid they’re not going to do a thing until someone gets killed.” Bell said he wants First Student to install cameras on the outside of the buses so they can document drivers breaking the law, something school district officials said they have not considered. But even that measure would require law enforcement follow-up for offenders to be caught and charged.

Russ Taylor, a First Student dispatcher who has helped process the faxed reports in the past, said he wishes the Troopers would consistently follow-up on the single incident cases where a tag and driver are clearly identified.

“I don’t necessarily think they need to devote someone to it, but they should be doing something, they should be following up on if they have the time,” he said. “It doesn't have to be the Trooper — could be a secretary.”