February 2001 
Bus drivers provide helpful advice and safe rides By Sheldon J. Reber, Director of School and Community Relations
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I f you ask a school bus driver about a favorite memory, many will cite the warm relationships they have with their passengers. Mary Marlin's favorite stories are about dropping off kindergartners and driving campers. "I was driving a kindergarten run and they say the cutest things, such as 'I'll tell you when you drive by my house,' or 'I live at the house with the white picket fence.' Also, when I've picked kids up from camp, and they're singing their camp songs on the bus on the way back from camp* I just think that's really cute," said Marlin. Kelly Wright likes to talk one-on-one with kids and find out how they're doing. "I like interacting with the kids. There are times they get on the bus and they look down and out and it's nice to talk with them and try to get them cheerful. The communication with the kids is a big plus for me," mentions Wright. Sometimes communication with parents can also help solve discipline problems on the bus. "I transport a lot of elementary kids on a smaller bus," says Wright. "And though they're in seat belts, a young man had his loose enough so he could stand up, he thought that was pretty cool. I told him he couldn't do that, but he didn't want to listen. So this morning at his stop, I shut the bus down and had a little conference with his Mom and he was very good after that. I always try and talk with the parents when I can." Driving kids to and from school safely is a serious responsibility. According to Dan Pires, director of maintenance, operations, and transportation, Eureka City Schools bus drivers have an impressive safety record. "Last school year, our drivers put over 128,000 accident-free miles on the buses. We transported an average of 670 students per day. And we also have several drivers that received the California Highway Patrol's safe driving award for driving more than ten years or over 100,000 without a preventable accident," stated Pires. In 1998, California passed a new law requiring motorists to stop in both directions when a school bus flashes its red lights. School bus drivers shared their observations on how well local drivers have been observing the law. Wright has seen motorists hurry through the flashing red lights and bus stop sign every school day. "The public is not getting better at stopping when the school bus red lights are flashing. I keep saying to myself one of these days it's gonna be their kid that gets hit by a car. They just do not stop at all. It's really scary. It's well abused by the public and they don't seem to care. Even though you pull over to the side and check for a big gap in the traffic, like on Henderson or Harris Street, they have two or three blocks to figure out there are red flashing lights and they just keep flying by," stated Wright. Wright's advice to motorists unfamiliar with the law, "It's a very large yellow object with red flashing lights on top, please stop." By stopping when a school bus flashes its red lights you just might be saving a life.
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