Bus company takes measures to ensure safety
A parent's brief scare ended happily when an elementary school student who missed her bus stop recently was brought safely home.
The incident, involving a 5-year-old kindergartener from Ixonia School, occurred on a half-day of school.
"Once the mistake was realized by the school bus driver, the school bus returned to the correct bus stop and the student exited the bus safely. We regret any worry this caused the child or the family. Procedures have been reviewed by Oconomowoc Transport and Ixonia Elementary to guard against this occurring again," said Mike Barry, assistant superintendent of business services.
"In addition to safe-driving habits, school bus drivers are trained to know their routes, their bus stops, and their student riders. The drivers are trained to be familiar, as much as possible, with who exits at each stop, especially with younger students. The drivers do an excellent job of this, but when a mistake is made, it calls for a renewed emphasis on fundamental procedures," he added.
In this instance, the normal drop-off time with the half-day school schedule was 1:53 p.m. for the child.
When the 5-year-old failed to get off at her stop the parent notified the bus company, which radioed the driver. The driver called the child's name several times with no answer. When the driver could safely pull over, she found the child, notified the dispatcher and the child was retuned home at 2:30 p.m., 37 minutes after her normal drop off time, according to Oconomowoc Transport.
School bus companies work hard to ensure a safe delivery system of students, and employ measures to make certain that students are not left unsupervised, said Oconomowoc Transport's Sandy Syberg.
"A post trip inspection checks all seats from front to back," he explained.
In addition, Oconomowoc Transport employs another element as an extra security measure.
"We've added a safety feature, a child reminder feature," Syberg said.
The system requires the drivers to deactivate a system after the mandatory physical check of the bus. If a driver fails to complete the check and neutralize the feature, it results in flashing lights and the horn sounding.
Still the possibility of a student missing their stop exists.
"Having radio communication, a post-trip inspection, and a child-reminder system ensures the student would not be left on a bus," Syberg added.
Bob Christian, executive director of the Wisconsin School Bus Association, said there are no state-mandated policies regarding the policing of children on and off the bus.
"That's all local control," he said.
"With 600,000 kids a day taking the bus, there's probably close to 90 million chances a year that could happen," he said of a student missing a bus stop.
Training and doing "dry runs" before the start of the year help to keep minimize the chances, Christian said.
E-mail Newsletter
Top stories from the Lake Country area. Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings.
Enter your e-mail address above and click "Sign Up Now!" to begin receiving your e-mail newsletter
Get the Newsletter!
1.jpg)
Lake Country residents share their views on news, happenings and current events.
LivingLakeCountry.com features more than a dozen community bloggers - a group of volunteer conversation leaders who are up on the latest topics and never short on an opinion. Just a few are pictured here. Check out the rest and see what they have to say!
View All Blogs
Discussion Guidelines
Do you want to become a Community Blogger? LivingLakeCountry.com welcomes your thoughts and opinions. Contact us for more information:
I want to blog
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 10 |
|
News or Feature Story of the Week by Jim Stevens: Where do Lake Country's richest live?
Sports Story of the Week by JR Radcliffe: Indians hit the stretch running |
MORE: See full gallery
SUBMIT: Post Your Photos now
Do you have news or an event that you would like to share with the community? Whether it's a community organization, a business, a local school, or a notable neighbor, we'd love to hear about it!!
- Relay For Life of Lake Country Kickoff-Monday, February 13th
- Oconomowoc Newcomers & Neighbors Monthly Mingle Tues Feb. 14
- UW-Waukesha Continuing Education Classes Offered the week of February 12-18, 2012
- The Rock River Patriots Welcome G. Edward Griffin To Wisconsin
- Master Composter Training Workshop Offiered
- Sussex-Menomonee Falls-Pewaukee Relay For Life Kickoff Event Sunday, February 19th 3:00 PM
- Open House at St. John's Lutheran Mukwonago
- Anti-Bullying assembly
- Summerstage "Break-A-Leg Gala"
- Pancakes at the House
MORE: See the rest of Your Stories
SUBMIT: Post Your Story now
