School busses are pictured during a press conference, which encouraged interested individuals to obtain Commercial Driver’s License to address bus driver shortage in Pennsylvania, on Thursday, October 21, 2021.
Commonwealth Media Services
School bus safety, winter drivers a concern for Penndot
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Scott LaMar
Commonwealth Media Services
School busses are pictured during a press conference, which encouraged interested individuals to obtain Commercial Driver’s License to address bus driver shortage in Pennsylvania, on Thursday, October 21, 2021.
Airdate: October 3, 2022
Every morning and afternoon, we see yellow school buses taking kids to and from school. It’s such a part of the fabric of our lives that we often take it for granted that buses are always going to be there, on time and safe.
But maybe we should take it for granted, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many Pennsylvania school districts or the companies they contract with have not been able to find enough bus drivers.
Another concern – and this predates the pandemic – is bus safety.
Monday’s Smart Talk featured Fritzi Schreffler – Penndot District 8 Safety Officer, who said illegally passing a school bus is the violation that involve buses that occurs most often in Pennsylvania,”If the school bus has its yellow lights flashing the amber lights, that means that they’re getting ready to come to a stop. So you should consider slowing down. You need to stop at least ten feet away from the school bus, whether that’s in the front or the back. As long as they have their red lights flashing and their stop arm outs, the school buses are equipped with that stop arm that comes out from the driver’s side. So you need to stop in any direction, no matter what. The only exception is if there is some kind of physical barrier, whether it’s a concrete barrier, a grass median, a line of trees, something guide rail that separates you. That is the only time that you are legally allowed to pass a stop school bus.”
Schreffler also indicated Penndot doesn’t have as many winter workers or snow plow drivers as they need,”For example, Lancaster County, we’re down 40 some operators. And that’s not just winter, that’s permanent drivers. So if you’re looking for a job at PennDOT and you can apply at any point, we have a lot of people who are going in and going right to permanent jobs. You know, there are people out there who just want to work temp, they’re retired. They just want to come in when it snows. But if you’re looking for a full time job, we’re hiring.
Why there is a shortage of drivers? “I think for us, we’re competing against trucking companies that maybe can pay a little bit more than we can. But what we try and emphasize is looking in the long term at the benefits. The benefits with the state are really good that you’re not driving over the road long haul. You have the option, if you’re working temporary, that you can come in and just work for a snowstorm or you can come in and do full time temporary work if you want to do that. You know, a lot of guys come into PennDOT and women, too. I want to point out that we do have female operators as well.”
If you’re not plowing snow, what are you doing? “Everybody’s favorite thing is potholes. So you might be patching those. You might be crack sealing, which is when you see all those squiggly black lines on the road that we’re trying to help keep the road in decent shape if we aren’t ready to pave that road. So we’re trying to to seal any cracks that are out there. You might be just regular maintenance that we do all year long. We might be cutting brush, we might be cutting trees. There’s a lot of maintenance work that can be done in the winter.”
