With Senator Singer’s proposal to create a task force to discuss and implement school bus safety going into motion, we’d like to hear from you, our readers, what ideas you feel would enhance the safety of Lakewood’s children to and from school each day.
As you may know, thousands of professionals, officials and lawmakers read TLS, so your ideas may just help bring about real change – change that can save a child’s life.
Feel free to post your ideas in the comments section.
Enforce the bus drivers driving habits. Many times they dont stop by stop signs properly. They dont use their yellow/red signals properly….
Just as busses have a metal pole that extends from the front when the stop sign is out, they should have a metal pole that sticks out under the stop sign on the bus. Although this will not stop cars completely but for those people who care more about their cars than about other people’s life this would scratch up and bang up their car when they pass by.
1.Dash cams on school busses
2.Some sort of camera or technology that can report on when drivers put on their yellow lights in relation to when they stop and put on their red lights (too often drivers just use the red lights and don’t use the yellow lights to notify those around them that they are about to stop).
3. Also, drivers need to get the headphones off so they can hear what’s going on around them!
Cameras on each bus to monitor what happens on the bus and outside each bus. And a supervisor to address any concerns from parents, schools, drivers, or any witness to reckless/irresponsible behavior
Any student returning home after dark should be required to wear a reflector belt and drivers should be allowed to stop on a diagonal to block cars from both sides
1. Bus drivers should not open the door until all traffic has stopped.
2. Promote teelecommuting to get drivers off the road.
3. Promote distance learning to lessen need for busing.
The Police need to start enforcing Driving and parking laws in this town! A police crackdown on running stop signs, talking on cell phones etc. will make an impact.
There needs to be more monitoring of students. Maybe an adult monitor to stop bullying on the bus.
My granddaughter has to be either walked to school(2 miles away) or driven by cab(costly) as she has been attacked on the bus.
The school won’t do anything about it and I feel it is unfair for my daughter to have to walk her to school in all kinds of weather.She can’t always afford to hire a cab as well.
There needs to be a better way to fix this problem.
My daughter doesn’t drive.
It seems like parents can’t control there kids anymore.
Bullying is dangerous and needs to be stopped so that kids can go to school in a good frame of mind.
1. Cameras. Inside and outside.
2. Ticket mailed out to those captured by said camera passing a school bus
3. Bus Monitors.
4. Doors do not open until bus cones to stop (this happens)
5. Allow buses to diagonally block the intersection and/or roadway. (a driver was ticketed a while back for this, pulled over by a township inspector no less)
6. Parents of younger aged children must be at their child’s drop off
7. Reconsider maximum speed limit for school buses, at least while transporting children
This list is not conclusive. Yes, some cost money, are easier said than done, etc. They’re just suggestions. We need to start discussing somewhere.
When I was a young girl I watched my best friend get off a bus and run directly into oncoming traffic. Thrown a distance and suffering a broken skull along with other injuries her survival hung in balance. B’chasdei hashem, she survived, and today she is a mother with children of her own.
Today, I am a mother too. And on most days, when my children get off their school bus, in the dark and in the rain or snow, or when there is ice on the road, I am not there to watch.
But every once in a while I am there, and as I watch them get off their buses and run blindly across the street (oblivious of my repeated warnings to stop and make sure opposing traffic has come to a complete stop), something inside of me flinches and I instinctively shut my eyes in fear. On other occasions, I am the oncoming traffic – I am behind the wheel of my car when I watch other’s children fly into the street without a glance in my direction, and before my car have come to a complete stop. I may (and do) have every intention of stopping, but those children cannot know what I know.
When I read a headline like that posted yesterday, of a child hit by a car getting off a bus my worst fears haunt me once more.
I wonder if a very simple rule can help protect our children and wanted feedback regarding effectiveness and how we can implement this safety rule. As a girl, I had a bus driver who simply did not open his doors to allow the children to get off the bus until opposing traffic came to a complete stop. I have clear childhood memories of watching in safety aboard the bus as a car whizzed by our bus’s outstretched stop sign. We watched in safety because the door of the bus remained closed. In Lakewood I have seen so often where children were well in middle of the road before oncoming traffic has even began slowing down. Were a driver to fail to break the end would be a tragedy.
Please lets discuss and act now before it is too late for a child.
Then only way to protect Lakewood students and enhance school bus safety is to send your kids to schools in different towns. The drivers of Lakewood are the problem and will continue to be until everyone gets over their false sense of entitle-ism and follow the rules we were all taught in drivers ed. Get off the cell phone, slow down, obey traffic lights and street signs, etc. It’s not very hard to slow down when you see the bus put its yellow lights on and to stop when they are red. There is ample time and opportunity to do both unless you are not following the rules and laws of the road. The onus is on the drivers, not the school buses or the school bus drivers.
bus stops need to be on the side of the street the students reside. even with stop signs children should not be allowed to cross a street. children should never have to walk in front of a bus either. lets have buses like NY a door on each side. and last but not least every bus should always have a monitor. 2 adults per bus.
Bus drivers should use try to minimize the amount of time that the lights are flashing as much as possible. It should not be flashing, for instance, when the driver is talking to the mother or if the child is not waiting at the bus stop.
When dropping off kids that have to cross the bus should stop at an angle blocking the other lane of oncoming traffic. I’ve seen this done in Brooklyn, NY by many school buses.
Bus drivers should not move after children get on the bus until they are seated.
Large penalties and fines for bus drivers and their company for any violation of driving or safety rules
Have the bus go on an angle and literally block traffic in both directions. You see his in Brooklyn. If the cars won’t stop for flashing lights then whats the choice?
Add flashing red lights to the SIDE of the bus. That is for traffic coming from the side (driveway/ intersection ect.) should know that there are kids getting on or off the bus, and he didn’t just stop or park. The way it is now, you could only see lights from the front or back.
Do not have children cross the street! Those stop signs aren’t safe enough! Some children crossing are very small and young, the lighting around town isn’t bright enough, the roads are congested. KIds crossing avenues with the little bus stop sign are simply in danger. Last year my daughters bus stop required her to cross an avenue, no matter who I pleaded to, it was like to a deaf ear, nobody could care less. I wondered if disaster had to happen to get somebody to listen. And so I went out every morning with other little kids to cross my daughter and send her off to school. Too often I wittnessed such close calls. Hashem should watch over our young children!! and our politicians should use some common scence!!
Have pd ride on a school bus with undercover cops in tow or near the bus and crack down on people who pass, crack down on those drivers talking on their cell phones while driving.
The buses should block the street
The bus drivers must have meetings and spoken to about the responsibility they have to make sure every kid gets home safe.
Police must constantly ticket.
BUSES SHOULD NOT MAKE STOPS IN MIDDLE OF INTERSECTIONS, OR IN MIDDLE OF A TURN. OPPOSING TRAFFIC MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SEE OR REALIZE THAT THE BUS IS MAKING A STOP.
Like the picture in the article. Buses should not let of passengers in the middle of an intersection. The warning lights are not able to be seen. Seems many bus companies in town are choosing to let their passengers off in that manner.
It is essential that the red flashing lights be associated with a child in the roadway. Red flashing light should NOT be used while speaking with a parent or while waiting for a child to exit the house. Unfortunately people learn to ignore the signal when they don’t think it is for real. The signals should only be used when a child is actually exiting/entering from the bus to the curb. This way drivers will learn that the signal means there is actually a child on the road and they respect the signal. Red flashing lights should NEVER be used after a child has already disembarked just to stop oncoming traffic so that the driver can make a left turn without yielding to the oncoming traffic. Once that is implemented, aggressive enforcement is warranted. Stopping on a diagonal is warranted when the stop is on the other side of the road.
At the end of the day cameras won’t stop someone from going thru. cuz they will only end up getting in trouble if they actually hit a kid.
even though its always the drivers fault for passing a bus, LAKEWOOD HAS TOO MANY IDIOTS DRIVING TO CARE ABOUT IT. so mb the bus drivers have to be taught to be extra careful not to open doors before the car has stopped!!!!
Dash cams wich can be monitored remotely by law enforcement wich can monitor the bus drivers behavior & the other drivers on the road and give tickets
just remember anyone working in an office or the like is monitored by video camera and the boss can check your computer any time so I don’t have any issues with privacy here
Children should not be getting on and off school buses in the dark.
All the people Kvetching here about the bus drivers, are the ones that are driving through the bus’s red lights every single day…….guaranteed.
You can ticket people to death. It obviously doesn;t help. As far as I am aware there is a pretty hefty fine + points for running a flashing light. (& if you kill someone by mistake after running a flashing light – you will sit in jail.) I think thats enough on the policing side of thing.
Just like police catch robbers & put them injail – there are still robbers, murderers etc. But its OUR responsibility to lock our doors, put alarms etc. to prevent it from happening to us.
In this case it is incumbent upon the bus companies to ensure that this CAN NOT HAPPEN – instead of dreaming of a utopian world where no one runs a (bus) stop sign.
THE ONLY WAY TO ENSURE THAT CHILDREN ARE NOT RUN OVER IS TO MAKE THE BUS STOP ON THE CORRECT SIDE OF THE STREET!!
There is just no other way.
bus stops should be on same corner of home so if live on south west corner that should be where the bus stops. children should never have to cross a street to go home. drivers either don’t see or don’t care to see the flashing red lights.
@safe parent. You’re right but that is not a realistic option because then it will take 2 hours to get home as apposed to the 1 hour it takes now.
I have witnessed mom’s going around red lights as they just dropped off boys to get on bus with no regards to red lights .wait a minute that’s all it taked
Launch campaign for driver education courses. The incentive for taking course is reduced insurance premiums. Benefit for all (hopefully) is better driving habits. While this alone (as well as any other one suggestion cure-all) won’t solve problem, it will have some impact as part of the overall equation.
Parents and teachers need to remind children to look before they cross the street, and not assume traffic is stopped. This morning I watched a girl, late for her bus, dash across the street without even a glance to see if it was safe.
Children need to be reminded and reminded and reminded – look both ways before you cross the street- even if you are late.
This time the cars were stopped, and the girl boarded the bus safely.
a bus driver that texts should lose his bus drivers licence. nuff said
Drivers need to slow down in residential neighborhoods- not just when school buses are stopped. Children forget what we teach them, and we must look out for them.
The safest thing would be that a child does NOT have to cross a street. Buses should only stop on the side that the child lives on.
If a child already got off the bus and the mother is talking to the driver, the driver should shut his flashing lights and let people pass. People shouldn’t have to wait for a bus longer than necessary. Also if there is traffic behind a bus the bus should pull over and let people pass before letting kids off so they have to wait.
Bus monitors on all routes!
I’m not sure if this is done but there should be regulations that screen backgrounds of all bus drivers just like a school that screens a teacher’s background. While there are some really nice caring and pleasant drivers there are also some that are very nasty to the children and don’t really care about the kids they are transporting. Cameras and bus monitors are great ideas as well
Please allow for built up traffic to pass, if not every stop then every two or three stops. Frustrated drivers are a potential danger,and yes,children have to learn common decency.They can’t hold people up just because they are in a big bus.
#1 Do you know p;roper use of yellow/red
#2 Most streets not wide enough to have side poles. The cars are parked incorrectly and to far into the street.
#6 On newer buses Stop sign will not come out until door is open.
#12 Your ideas double or triple taxes. Also stop on resident side will double time on bus.
#26 What time should school start and end???
# 38 Drivers records and finger prints are checked every two years. Teachers are checked when hired.
# 39 100% correct.
Town police and the boe have a list of streets that are not to be crossed by students.
One of the best ways to bring safety to Lakewood is make many of the streets one way , a task force should look into this .
I hope when this task for is formed that there are a few reps from the bus companies in town both drivers and management.
# 40 i have been driving a bus for over 12 years already and i never ever open the door to let the kids off until all traffic around my bus is clear.
if the stop sign only comes out once you open your door you should open your door a crack until all traffic stops around you. I also set up a system that when i pick up the kids they wait until i motion to them to go into the street.
stops should be grouped together more.
example (which i witness daily)
Take a street like Park Ave. from 7th to 4th – the bus should stop ONCE on this stretch – not 4 times. this reduces the amount of stops.. and kids wil be getting off in groups, rather than 1 by 1
this applies to all long rd stretches like this, where kids are in essence all getting off on the same long block.
If there were fewer buses stopping at every corner it would be much safer. Kids should be bussed by neighborhood and not by school. Rather a bus should load up on a corner and then stop at numerous schools to make the drop offs. This would lessen the bus traffic, shorten the bus routes and save the taxpayers money.
To Paul revere
I complain about the bus drivers & never passed a bus in my life. So don’t judge people. In my opinion the bus drivers are the worst drivers. They speed they take corners very sharp the turn lights on abruptly in front of fast moving traffic they keep the lights on for no reason all adds up to a complete abuse of power. They all need to be retrained.
Bus drivers should stop pulling into on comin traffic and dropping the children off in middle of the street. Them makin. A sharp turn back into their lane. Bc that’s putting the ppl in the other lane and the children crossing the street and the ppl on the bus at risk of an accident. And y can’t bus drivers do wat they did wen I was a child!! Droo the kid off on the side he lives on in stead of having him cross the street??????? I think it’s abt time to bus companys drill this into their buss drivers heads. That children will keep on getting killed if they keep up their “bad” job. Its time for all this to stop. Bus drivers and their companies are a big part in this (besides the drivers) PLEASE get some BRAINS
Slow down!!!!!
I drove a school bus in Lakewood for years. Here are some of my thoughts.
The routes are too long. After about 25 minutes the kids get restless, and rowdy. It becomes difficult to concentrate on the driving when the children are loud, jumping on the seats, fighting…
The buses don’t have air conditioning. On the very hot summer days the kids get wilder much quicker. I’d allow them to have drinks and snacks. But, most of them would leave the garbage on the floor.
Bus drivers should put on the yellow blinking lights about 5 seconds before the stop sign goes out. However, they shouldnt allow the kids to exit until they’ve ascertained that all the traffic has came to a full stop.
We should all have courtesy to the buses and allow them the right of way, even when the rules of the road don’t grant the buses the right if way. The buses need more of gap in traffic to make a turn (even a right turn – where the bus needs to make a wider turn). This could potentially shorten the routes. We need to be courteous for our children’s sakes.
We should put a moratorium on all large townhouse/duplex developments. Our roads can’t handle all the cars that we are putting on the streets. The developments usually have only one exit. It is extremely tough and dangerous to navigate a bus through these developments. ( It is almost impossible on garbage day or if there is snow on the ground,) At the least we shouldn’t allow the developments to have rental basements. It causes too many vehicles in too small an area. It would help if the state built an overpass or tunnel from Howell toToms River circumventing route 9. But, at least we should try to make our local streets safer. I realize that a moratorium on large developments, and prohibiting basement rentals would cause havoc to our local economy. We might have many more foreclosures. But, it could and should save precious lives. Maybe it will make us trust in G-D that he is the one who is sustaining us.
Nothing will help unless everybody starts understanding that they don’t own this town and guess what there are actually other people besides for them on road and when police give you a ticket it’s not because of anti semititesm but rather because of your disregard for simple common courtesy that are never displayed in this bshvili nivra haaretz town . Have you ever tried to turn into a lane in this town how many people will slow down and let you in or will they make sure to zoom up so that you have no chane of turning in , common courtesy that nobody seems to have . A four way stop sign in this town is an oppertunity for a Kol de olim gvar ! Whoever pushes out his car first goes first can you imagine letting somebody go first ? I could go on but I’m afraid of being called nazi so I’ll stop here
Slow down. Get off the cell phone. Leave early enough to allow yourself time to drive safely. Be courteous to other drivers. Don’t allow anything to distract you when you’re at the wheel. Think of others instead of yourself.
Buses must let off the kids on the right side of the street. no child should ever have to cross.
Drivers must drive cautiously and not talk on the phone.
As a school bus driver in Lakewood, I make sure all my passengers are seated before I move my bus. I also use my yellow warning lights a block away to warn people that I am stopping to pick up or drop off a student. The problems are caused by the car drivers who have no regard for the rules of the road or the safety of the town’s children. Buses should not be allowed in apartment complexes as it is getting unsafe for the bus to get through with all the cars parked whereever and however they please.
Look the dynamics of Lakewood is very different than other towns .
We have large populations slam into small areas.
We have parking situations where cars could barely squeeze by.
We have troublesome spots that truly need red lights .
Life has become quite stressful for the Lakewood driver .
In addition our students get out much later than the average Njian .
It is not uncommon for buses to be running at 10:00 at night .
Lakewood bus drivers are also under huge pressures to support their families .
Cost of living is impossible and the drivers need multiple shifts just to make ends meet .
There really is no answer . There’s been accidents everyday .
Are we just going to shrug our shoulders and say that’s the way it works , large cities , large casualties ?
In addition there are many people who pass through Lakewood unfamiliar or uncaring of our laws .
If we go the enforcement route ,
Lakeeood people are already choking from taxes .
If we light up all troublesome spots really bright. , it’ll cost a fortune .
If we get more lights everywhere , it’ll be pricey and stressful
There’s really no answer
But I have a suggestion , just keep in stuffing in those townhouses on every availble spot and the problem will go away on it’s own . NOT!
H-ashem Yerachaim
@ah, If it means hiring more busses than so be it – I don’t believe it should take double the amount of resources – if the routes are done better with GPS technology it may take a few minutes more that’s all. what’s a few dollars when it comes to the safety of our children. In Brooklyn all the little ones get on and off in front of their house not even at their corner. so yes it does cost a few dollars but here for private transportation we get on sundays and holidays I pay more than those in Brooklyn pay for door to door service on a daily basis and I still need to go to the corner and expect a bus to come whenever and to whichever corner they please.
Combine the bus routes , I see busses going past my house with maybe 8-10 children on the bus. Combine the runs so they coordinate with schools close to each other, this would cut down the number of busses needed on the roads. Another thought, STOP BUILDING ON EVERY EMPTY PIECE OF LAND IN TOWN!
I am baffled at all the responses blaming bus drivers. I can think of one or two occasions where I saw a bus driver acting reckless vs hundreds/ thousands where they drive safely. I think we need to come together & get on the same team- bus drivers, management or whoever sets the routes, and parents. It really makes no difference if you thought you were right once a tragedy occurs. Nobody wants to be dead right.
I like the idea of the bus driver above who suggested getting bus companies and drivers on that task force. How many of us would have the patience and calm to drive a bus day after day? If we drove withore respect for busses and all cars in general things would look very different.
I also think its a good suggestion to have one central bus stop at the entrance to each development. It can become the new norm to have a sheltered bus stop which protects kids from the elements. Parents can choose to supervise their younger children or create a rotation system. There is safety in numbers- when the children all wait in one designated location cars can’t miss seeing them. This will have the added benefit of reducing route times drastically as busses often enter several developments to drop off one or two children, and then have to turn back into Route 9. Your child may not get picked up or dropped off at your front door. That’s the way it goes all across America. Deal with it. Buy a hat and gloves & your kid will survive.
#45 BOE not the bus companies or the drivers set the stops and the drivers are called told not to change the stops. Slo i guess the BOE is doing a bad JOB. Again people making statements about stuff they know nothing about.
# 53 You want door to door service and most drivers want fewer stops maybe the at home parent should talk with the driving parent to get their wants together. And again the BOE assigns the stops.
# 55 Your statements are about the best that have been made on this subject. I know many of the drivers would be very happy with just one stop for the many developments.
Have designated bus stops. Also have the parents wait for them at these stops. Instead of buses stopping at each corner it should be every third stop. In other words two stops no and third yes and so on….i remember when my kids were uin school we wete there to get them on the bus at their designated bus stop and be there when they were dropped off. That s what i think should b done!