Never pass a school bus while it is loading or unloading students.
Under Mississippi law, motorists must remain at least 10 feet in either direction from a stopped school bus when its stop sign and crossing arms are engaged. It’s a law we are often reminded about at the start of a new school year.
Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a tragedy for it to truly resonate.
On Oct. 31, 9-year-old Dalen Thomas was killed after he was struck by a car while boarding a school bus to attend Baldwyn Elementary. Dalen was an exceptional kid who overcame much after being born with a congenital condition that impacted his motor skills and hearing. Before he started kindergarten, he underwent 10 surgeries. And yet, he was an honor student, an advanced artist, and a friend whom classmates remembered as being remarkably generous.
His death is not isolated, either. Between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 this year, five children were killed and six were injured across five different school bus incidents in Mississippi, Indiana, Kentucky, Florida and Pennsylvania.
In Northeast Mississippi, an elementary school student has been struck and killed by a driver while entering or leaving a school bus twice in the past three school years. In October 2016, 7-year-old North Pontotoc Elementary student Amiya Braxton was killed by an SUV moments after stepping off her school bus.
The Mississippi law on school bus safety is named after Nathan Key, who was killed in 2009 when he was struck by a car while leaving a school bus in Jones County.
Under that 2011 law, violators can be charged with aggravated assault if they hit a child. Motorists can also be fined up to $750 for ignoring a bus’s stop arm, and up to $1,500 for a second offense.
Dalen’s death, which occurred along Highway 370 in the Pratts community, also brings into focus the peril for children boarding buses along rural two-lane highways, where traffic tends to be moving at higher speeds. Those boardings are more dangerous than in municipalities, which tend to offer neighborhood stops.
There isn’t an easy answer. But we encourage leaders to creatively work toward strategies that increase safety.
That includes drawing bus routes to the best of their abilities in a way that limits students having to cross highways. We understand that many districts already do this – and that it isn’t always possible – but Dalen’s death should bring a renewed focus to the importance of these efforts.
It also includes greater enforcement – even employing cameras on stop arms — to send a message to motorists that they can’t pass a stopped bus.
As a community mourns the loss of a life that was tragically taken too soon, we must work to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
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