The Gulf County School District Celebrates Annual School Bus Safety Week

From Oct. 19-23, 2009, Gulf County Schools is recognizing National School Bus Safety Week to help highlight the importance of school bus safety awareness and education.

This year's theme, Avoid Harm, Obey the Stop Arm, emphasizes the importance of motorists following the rules of the road and stopping when the red lights flash on school buses and the stop signs deploy to indicate that children are getting on and off the bus.  The stop arms require drivers to stop, except when they are going the opposite direction as the school bus on certain divided highways.

"As the safest mode of transportation to and from school, according to the National Academy of Sciences and U.S. Department of Transportation, parents trust the school bus to transport more than 26 million school children in 480,000 school buses each day.  In Gulf County over 1,080 students ride the school bus each day," said Greg Layfield, Transportation Coordinator, Gulf County Schools.  "Our job is to ensure that they get to school safe and sound on each and every ride, which is why we think it is so important to celebrate School Bus Safety Week."

While national studies confirm that school bus transportation is the safest way for children to get to school, the American School Bus Council (ASBC) recently found that 44 percent of parents identify the yellow school bus as the safest way for children to get to school.  Part of the goal of School Bus Safety Week is to help everyone understand that school bus transportation is the safest option whenever it is available.

For years, school buses have provided access to learning for Florida's and America's school children through healthy, safe and secure transportation to schools.  School buses provide more than 10 billion passenger trips each year and offer solutions to several key issues we all face:

*   Safety: School buses are the safest form of transportation for students -many times safer than riding in cars and other smaller vehicles.

*   Traffic: Every child riding a school bus represents one fewer car on the road, especially in the congested areas around schools.

*   Fuel Consumption: The ASBC estimates that school bus transportation saves Americans more than $6 billion a year on fuel costs.

*   Environment: Students riding in the school bus instead of the family car means fewer car trips and less pollution.  Each school bus takes the place of about 36 cars that would be needed to transport the same number of students, according to ASBC estimates.

Celebrated the third full week of October each year, School Bus Safety Week promotes awareness on the local and state level through poster and speech contests, distribution of school bus safety community awareness toolkits, and other activities to raise awareness of school bus safety issues.

Helpful Tips for School Bus Riders:

*        Be alert to traffic.  Check both ways for cars before stepping off the bus.

*     Make eye contact with the bus driver, and wait for the bus driver's signal before crossing the street.

*        Walk in front of the bus; never walk behind the bus to cross the street.

*        While waiting for the bus, stay in a safe place away from the street.

*        Never go under the bus to retrieve something you've dropped.

For more information about school bus safety, visit the following web sites: www.americanschoolbuscouncil.org<http://www.americanschoolbuscouncil.org>.=