November 30, 2001
More training for Seneca East bus drivers
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
Additional training is being provided to school bus drivers involved in the four recent accidents in the Seneca East district.
In the past two weeks, four of the district's buses have been involved in accidents with another vehicle, with the bus driver cited in three of them.
Annual bus safety training is provided by the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center. Superintendent Mike Wank said that additional safety training is being provided to the district's drivers by Max Place, a bus driver certification coordinator from Lima. The two and a half hours of training are to take place Wednesday.
Wank said that all three of the cited drivers were experienced, with up to 30 years of transporting school children safely to their destinations. The buses themselves were some of the newest in Seneca East's fleet of 23 buses: 1995, 2000 and 2001 models. All were equipped with the latest safety features, Wank said.
"There are still blind spots,'' Wank added. "No matter how experienced you are, if there is a blind spot and you miss it, there could be an accident.''
On the average, Wank said, a bus accident would occur once every year or two.
"We've never been cited,'' he said, thinking back on past accidents. "And no one here can remember any with other vehicles.''
A rural school district with three elementaries, a junior high and high school located between Attica and Republic, buses run 1,100 miles a day on regular trips.
"We also run 200 to 300 miles on special trips,'' he said. "We run a ton of miles every day.''
Two of the involved buses are out with repairs; Wank said the district carries five "spares.'' He said the board may look at the need for additional spare buses.
None of the children were injured in any of the accidents, Wank said. "Children are very safe on buses,'' he said. "School buses are built with safety in mind.''