March 27, 2007: Operation Safe Stop Day

To Stop or Not to Stop!

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ALBANY, NY (03/26/2007)(readMedia)-- This is to advise that the New York Association for Pupil Transportation will convene a press conference related to illegal passing of school buses at the following sites:

March 27, 2007 @ 10 a.m.

Suffolk County Police Department Headquarters

In partnership with the Suffolk County Chapter of NYAPT, Longwood CSD, and the Suffolk County Police Department Local law enforcement officials, education and school transportation officials will all be involved in the event.

NOTE: Illegal passing of school buses (in violation of Sec. 1174 of the NYS Vehicle & Traffic Law) is a serious risk to the safety of our children, and has resulted in the deaths of two New York children -- Mallory Eddy and Chana Friedlander -- since May 2004. It is estimated that 50,000 motorists pass a stopped school bus illegally each day of the school year.

Every day in our state, over 2.3 million children are transported to and from school on over 50,000 yellow school buses. School transportation operators, including schools, BOCES, private contractors, and others, work diligently to ensure that every one of those children get to school and back home again safely each day.

More than 50,000 school bus drivers and nearly 10,000 school bus attendants and thousands of technicians and dispatchers do their part to ensure that school buses are well-equipped, safe and clean, that they are driven professionally and that they adhere to safe and efficient routes.

However, there is one factor that we cannot control despite all our efforts for the safety of our school children: we cannot make the motoring public STOP for school buses that are stopped to pick up or drop off our children. To stop or not to stop! That is the question that must be answered by the motoring public.

The New York Association for Pupil Transportation calls upon all New Yorkers to observe an extra measure of safety on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - Operation Safe Stop Day. We estimate that some 50,000 motorists will illegally pass a stopped school bus on any given day of the school year. That is 50,000 times a day that someone breaks a law intended to protect our children. That is 50,000 times a day that a child may be injured or even killed by a passing motorist.

We also urge our school children to follow the rules they are taught by their schools and school bus drivers. These include lining up single file to get onto the school bus, never going under or behind the school bus, never fighting or bullying at the school bus stop and others. These rules are set out to help you stay safe so that you can have a good day in school and go home that night with your family and friends.

Moreover on this day, we are announcing that a new Coalition is being established by our non-profit foundation -- the Cyr Foundation for Excellence in School Transportation. The Coalition for the Eradication of Illegal Passing of School Buses will include representatives from a variety of agencies and organizations concerned about illegal passing and child safety. We will ask those organizations to collaborate with our industry to attempt to determine why illegal passing continues to be such a problem and how we might be able to reduce and eliminate its occurrence. We are pleased to announce this venture with the Cyr Foundation and look forward to its success.

School bus safety is very important to all in our state -- after all, our children are our future and our future is riding with us!

A press event is planned to commemorate Operation Safe Stop Day at the Suffolk County Police Department headquarters in Yaphank, Suffolk County at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday March 27th {NYAPT is a non-profit professional association comprised of the women and men who are responsible for the safe and efficient transportation of more than 2.3 million children to and from school each day in New York State.}

{Please see attached statement from NYAPT on illegal passing of school buses.}

STATEMENT BY THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION FOR PUPIL TRANSPORTATION ILLEGAL PASSING OF SCHOOL BUSES-MARCH 2007

CONTACT: PETER MANNELLA (518-463-4937)

The New York Association for Pupil Transportation issued the following statement on the critical issue of illegal passing of school buses in New York State:

In New York State, 50,000 school buses filled with more than 2.3 million children are on our roads and highways each day. The members of our association take seriously their jobs of efficiently and safely transporting those children to school each day and back home to their families in the afternoon. We maintain over $4.5 billion in school bus fleets and recruit and train some 50,000 school bus drivers to safely operate those school buses. We plan daily routes that ensure the safest and most direct ways to school for those children. And we constantly train and refresh our teams to ensure their performance, their quality and their focus on safety.

We need the help of the motoring public to do one more thing -- we need you to pay better attention and to STOP for school buses when they are loading and unloading their passengers -- our children, your children.

Section 1174 of the Vehicle and Traffic laws of our state requires that a vehicle come to a complete stop and remain stopped for a school bus that has its red lights flashing. Those red lights are telling you to STOP because a child is about to move near the school bus -- either to get on or to get off. Your job is simply to STOP and wait for that child to safely get onto or off from the school bus.

Despite this law and its steep fines and penalties, we estimate that every day in our state, motorists illegally pass school buses some 50,000 times. And sometimes an innocent child gets injured or killed as a result.

Over the past two school years, 69 children have been injured by passing motorists. In addition, in May 2004, we lost little Mallory Eddy when a vehicle struck her as she stepped off her bus in Central New York.

That vehicle passed the red lights of her bus on the curbside or the shoulder side of the school bus! In Brooklyn in June 2006, we lost another 5-year old child -- Chana Friedlander -- who was struck by a car as she crossed the street to get to her school bus in Brooklyn. We are plagued with stories from school bus drivers repeating similar actions by drivers on our roads each and every day of the school year.

Every year with the help of the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee, we conduct a day we call "Operation Safe Stop Day" on which law enforcement officials partner with us to enforce the illegal passing laws and to educate the public about the problem. We believe more and more that the problem will not go away until we make EVERY day Operation Safe Stop Day. And that is why we issue this statement at this time.

We call upon ALL New Yorkers to take that brief moment to STOP for a stopped school bus. It's really hard to miss something that big and that yellow with red lights flashing and red signs telling you to "STOP." So please, remember those 2.3 million children on our buses: they're counting on you!

(For more information on school bus safety, illegal passing of school buses, or on how to bring Operation Safe Stop to your school community, please contact the New York Association for Pupil Transportation at 518-463-4937.)

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