All aboard for school bus safety

By Philip Navarrette/reporter@trcle.com

November 04, 2007 04:15 pm

— Dozens of kindergarten and prekindergarten students lined up Friday morning outside Coleman Elementary School waiting to get on a bus. But instead of going on a field trip, the students were there to learn about the bus.
Cleburne ISD bus driver Becky Sutton and transportation director David Walker talked to the students about bus safety and demonstrated how best to say safe in and around a bus.
“It’s something we do every year,” Walker said.
The presentation is part of a larger unit comprised of a video, bus-safety reader and a classroom activity, Walker said.
“We really try to reinforce what they’ve learned,” he said. “It’s important, particularly with this 5- to 7-year-old age group.”
One of the most important things taught to the students is the concept of a “danger zone,” Walker said.
The danger zone is a 10-foot radius around the bus that represents a hazard for students. Within the danger zone a bus driver has extremely poor visibility when compared with objects outside the zone, Walker said.
With the pre-K and kindergarten students typically being the smallest bus riders, they can easily be lost from a driver’s field of vision while within the zone, Walker said.
“Remember, if you cannot see your driver, your driver cannot see you,” Sutton told students during the presentation.
With all the parts of the unit, Walker said he hopes that students retain what they’ve learned about the danger zone.
“It gives them more than one shot at it, so hopefully the components will stick in their heads,” he said.
The students also learned how to properly board a bus, how to sit safely and what do to in an emergency.
Coleman pre-K student Patrick Thompson said he enjoyed the presentation. Getting a chance to enter and exit the bus was his favorite part, he said.
Walker said the presentation’s aim is very simple.
“Our goal is to keep the students as safe as possible,” he said.