Bus Safety Number One Priority

When it comes to School Buses

Safety is a Topmost Priority in Sayville

For all Sayville students, learning bus safety is an ongoing part of the District curriculum. In conjunction with the district’s contracted bus service, Suffolk Transportation, numerous classroom safety lessons (see link below) and two drills are practiced early in the school year, and a third drill—as a reminder—is held in the spring.

Whether or not they ride the bus, all students participate in these drills during the school hours. Our teachers instruct the students on the do’s and don’ts of:

• Waiting at the bus stop in a safe manner
• Inclement weather and the dangers of poor visibility, icy conditions, and strong winds,
• Boarding the bus
• The hazards of running for the bus
• Behavior on the bus and proper seating
• Emergency situations which include knowing the location of all emergency exits, emergency equipment, and how to evacuate the bus in an orderly fashion.

In addition to Sayville District’s lessons, Suffolk Transportation sends out safety tips with the bus schedules in August.

Dedicated to providing the safest service available, Suffolk Transportation has strict guidelines for their school bus drivers. Each of the drivers is required to have the following:

• An indepth interview and personal evaluation
• A clean pre-employment drug test and ongoing random drug and alcohol testing
• Fingerprinting and a criminal background check
• Good character references
• A commercial driver’s license and a clean motor vehicle record
• Up to 60 hours of in-house classroom/road training
• Internal and external Road Reviews and a Peer System Review
• Annual recertification, physical exams, and road supervision
• Complete annual training and refresher courses.

This November, Suffolk Transportation has added five new, 66-passenger buses to the Sayville fleet. These new buses are equipped with video cameras as a safety precaution for our students. This enhanced safety program is part of the new initiative in bus safety. Not only will the digital video cameras that record pictures and sound serve as a deterrent to misbehavior on buses, it will allow for timely and effective disciplinary response, as evidenced by the recordings, to those rare occasions when incidents do occur. By law [8 BYCRR #156.9(d)(1)], school districts can use video cameras on school buses to ensure the safety of the drivers and passengers.

Suffolk Transportation would also like to assure the District that it regularly addresses another aspect of safety—sanitation of the vehicles. Routine school bus cleaning is done to environmental surfaces so as to reduce levels of bacteria.

So, next time those yellow school buses roll by, the Sayville community can feel confident. Bus safety is indeed a topmost priority in Sayville School District, thanks to Suffolk Transportation’s bus service.