Letters: SC needs to get serious about school bus safety

In a little more than two weeks, my children’s school bus was passed three times on yellow and twice while the red lights were flashing and the stop arm was clearly out. In other words, my children’s lives have been put at risk five times on the way to get an education. This terrifies me.

We have a law to punish stop arm violators, but it’s not enforceable because police have to hand deliver the ticket to the offender.

How is it that the registered owner of a vehicle can be fined for parking or toll booth violations, yet passing a stopped school bus, which puts lives at risk, isn’t treated as an equal offense. Is the minute it takes to stop really worth a child’s life? We need something done about this.

According to the S.C. Association for Pupil Transportation, 280 violations happen daily in the state, and 14 children killed and 28 injured in past 40 years. I’ve seen the abuses increase in just the past five years at my house, and I fear the numbers will jump if nothing is done.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 5:27 AM.