By:Cindy J. Roth
Twice a day, as Donna Prochilo waits at Newbridge Road and East Meadow Avenue for her son to get on and off the school bus, she fears for his safety.
Regardless of the flashing red lights on the front and rear of the bus, cars cruise past it as children load and unload. Prochilo and other John G. Dinkelmyer School parents believe cars do not stop and wait behind the bus as required by law because the bus is not equipped with a stop arm.
"People don't stop when they see the flashing lights," Prochilo said. "The stop sign works a little bit of magic."
Marisa Carrieri, co-president of the Dinkelmeyer PTA, believes having a bus without a stop arm is unsafe. The bus driver has to hold his hand out the window for motorists to stop. Prochilo said just last week a mini-van passed the Dinkelmyer school bus while it was loading passengers. It took another school bus behind the Dinkelmeyer bus to put out its stop sign to halt passing vehicles.
Howard Pollitt, assistant business superintendent in the North Bellmore School District, has followed the Dinkelmeyer bus on its route about a dozen times, and he has not seen cars passing the bus, though he does not doubt it happens. Because of increasing interest in the issue, Pollitt has asked police to step up surveillance in the North Bellmore area, but mothers said that is not enough.
Dinkelmeyer mothers have repeatedly called the Courtesy/Atlantic Express bus company and asked for a bus with a stop arm along their route. The women were told there are no other buses with stop arms available, and the company assured them that students are safe on their buses.
New York State law does not require school buses to have stop arms. According to the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Vehicle and Traffic Law book, school buses with a capacity of more than 15 passengers need only be equipped with: colored flashing signal lamps on the front and rear of the bus that are activated when passengers are boarding and disembarking the bus; two signs on the exterior of the bus in black; uppercase letters reading school bus, and various mirrors, beepers and reflective tape on the outside of the bus. There is no mention of stop arms.
But federal motor vehicle safety standards do mandate that all school buses have stop arms installed "to improve the safety of pedestrians in the vicinity of stopped school buses" and "to reduce deaths and injuries by minimizing the likelihood of vehicles passing a stopped school bus and striking pedestrians in the vicinity of the bus." The federal law passed May 3, 1991 and took effect Jan. 1, 1992. School buses made before 1992 were not required to be retrofitted with stop arms, according to Liz Neblett, a representative from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
George Keller, vice president of Courtesy/Atlantic Express bus company, had little to say when questioned about stop arms and the company's buses.
"Some vehicles have them, some don't," Keller said. "That's all I have to say."
Keller declined to comment about how old the bus serving the Dinkelmeyer school is, how many of the company's buses do not have stop signs, from what company the buses were purchased and whether a different bus was available for the Dinkelmeyer route.
The North Bellmore School District has employed Courtesy/Atlantic Express bus company for many years, and this is the first time in a while parents have raised concerns.
Pollitt remembers that several years ago there was a similar situation with the buses being passed because cars could not see the flashing lights owing to the sun. The school district moved the bus stop a few blocks away, and the problem disappeared, Pollitt said.
At the district's board of education meeting early this month, North Bellmore School District Superintendent James Parla said there is little legally that can be done about the bus situation. Parla encouraged Dinkelmeyer PTA members to take the issue up with the New York State PTA and local elected officials.
State Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) has been a leading advocate of student safety as a member of the Senate Transportation Committee. On June 21, Fuschillo sponsored legislation requiring the addition of a second stop arm on the rear of newly manufactured school buses with a seating capacity of 45 passengers or more. Michael Arens, Fuschillo's chief of state, said the senator plans to amend the second stop arm legislation to ensure there is a law requiring a first stop arm.
"Each day, 2.2 million children ride on school buses in this state, and they are at most risk when they are getting on and off the bus," Fuschillo said. "A second stop arm will help save lives by providing additional visibility to surrounding traffic when children are boarding or exiting a school bus."
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Association statistics, between 1988 and 1998, an average of 30 school-age children were killed each year in school-bus related crashes. Pedestrian fatalities while loading and unloading school buses accounted for nearly three out of every four of those deaths.
Fuschillo's legislation is expected to be signed into law within the next two weeks by Governor Pataki and go into effect immediately. The legislation would not require the retrofitting of vehicles made before the law.
"There is no reason for [bus companies] to add a sign [to older buses] legally, but knowing it's a safety concern should motivate them," Prochilo said. "There always has to be a terrible accident before something is done."
