INDIANAPOLIS (May 7, 2014) — School bus drivers are hired for an important task of keeping our youngest Hoosiers safe on the road.
Fox 59 went on a ride-a-long with Miller Transportation to see the dangers they face on the road.
Police have responded to at least four crashes involving school buses in the last two weeks. Two of those incidents killed a motorcyclist and a man on his bike. Investigators have deemed both cases a tragic accident. Nobody was charged.
Rocky Cummings drives more than 100 kids home in the Fountain Square area every day. He’s seen his share of close calls.
“I’m almost a semi. There’s no easy way to stop one of these things,” said Rocky Cummings, a school bus driver of nine years. “There’s a few times I’ve had to hit my brakes to stop from hitting the back of someone who pulled in front of me.”
According to the Indiana Department of Education, Indiana school bus drivers across 184 school districts reported 2,699 incidents where drivers passed a stop arm in one day last year. In 2011, there were 1,797 cases.
“We really need help from the public to get everyone to and from safely,” said Cummings. “If a lot of these drivers [imagined] their child on that bus, they would look at things a whole lot differently.
