April 18th is OPERATION SAFE STOP DAY in New York

ALBANY, NY (04/16/2013)(readMedia)-- Twenty years ago in the spring of 1993, a small group of school bus professionals came up with the idea to partner with local police to monitor and crack down on drivers who passed stopped school buses. This locally-grown program was soon implemented statewide and became known as Operation Safe Stop. We are proud that it has continued as an important traffic safety initiative to this day.

On Thursday, April 18, 2013, local police officers, sheriff patrols and State Police officers will monitor traffic around school buses and specifically be on the alert for motorists who are illegally passing those school buses. Their monitoring efforts will focus on bus stops in areas that local school officials indicate have been problem spots for their school buses. This program is conducted by NYAPT and the school transportation community in cooperation with the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee.

The issue of illegal passing of school buses by motorists is one that presents significant risk of injury and harm to our children. The New York Association for Pupil Transportation joins all who care about school bus safety and the safety of our children in deploring illegal passing and in striving to eliminate it in New York State.

Yellow school buses in New York transport 2.3 Million children to and from school each day. It is the goal of the pupil transportation community in our state to ensure that each and every child has a safe ride to school and back home every day. We take great pride in the amazing safety record we have achieved in our work transporting our children. That safety record does not happen because of luck or happenstance. It is achieved because of hard work, diligence, attention to detail and a commitment by our school transportation teams to safety at all levels.

We observe April 18th as OPERATION SAFE STOP DAY because the critical problem of illegal passing remains unsolved and places our children at risk each and every day as they go to school. As recently as February 13, 2013, a child in New York State was struck by a vehicle that had passed the yellow school bus that had stopped to bring him to school that day.

Everyone in the school transportation community is concerned about the continuing high levels of illegal passing of stopped school buses by the motoring public. We estimate that some 50,000 motorists will pass a stopped school bus on any given school day in New York State. It's important, however, to understand some of the numbers:

• In pilot projects that we conducted with the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee that used on-board digital cameras, we experienced rates of passing that were as high as 80,000 passes per day.

• In a recent survey of our members in late March and early April, school bus drivers reported over 1,400 random incidents of illegal passing including 26 passes on the passenger or right side of the school bus. Each and every one of those passes was a moment at which a young child could have been struck and either injured seriously or killed by the vehicle.

• In the past several years on OPERATION SAFE STOP DAY, a daily average of 1,300 tickets were written by local and State Police for illegal passing of school buses.

Regardless of the volume of passes from year-to-year, the problem continues to place our children at great risk of injury and death and it needs to be addressed.

Through events like OPERATION SAFE STOP, the New York Association for Pupil Transportation joins with law enforcement and all in the pupil transportation community to call on motorists to remember to STOP for our children.

Here is what the law provides: that every motorist stop for a school bus that is stopped and has its red flashing lights engaged, indicating it is either picking up or dropping off children. Failure to stop for those red lights can result in fines ranging from $250-$400 for the first violation, five points on the registered motorists license and even imprisonment! Despite these fines, the problem continues!

Police agencies and local school districts will observe OPERATION SAFE STOP all across New York on April 18, 2013. We need to support of parents and motorists in every community to help eliminate illegal passing and to protect our school children!

NYAPT will participate in two events relating to OPERATION SAFE STOP this week:

• "Launch" presentation announcing OPERATION SAFE STOP DAY to be held in conjunction with the Nassau County/Suffolk County Joint NYAPT Meeting. That meeting will be held at 11:45 AM at The Woodlands at 1 Southwoods Road, Woodbury, New York.

• Presentation about OPERATION SAFE STOP at the annual School Bus Driver of the Year event at 11:00 AM at the Ulster County Law Enforcement Center on Route 32 (Boulevard) in Kingston, New York. The Ulster County Traffic Safety Advisory Board and the Dutchess County Traffic Safety Board offer this significant award each year in partnership with the Mid-Hudson NYAPT Chapter.

ATTACHED IS A PAPER SUMMARIZING THE ISSUE OF ILLEGAL PASSING.