Recent mishaps prompt district revamp of bus safety policies

SHOHOLA —New policies have been put in place as district officials last Thursday admitted that things were not handled well in recent incidents involving a Delaware Valley bus and those of its contractor, Krise Bus. These included two incidents of bus drivers failing to find sleeping students aboard their buses and a January collision of two Krise buses en route to a swimming meet. The first incident involved a second-grade Delaware Valley Elementary student from Pond Eddy, who fell asleep on her way to school and was not found by the driver of district-owned van upon its arrival. Awaking alone, she remembered her emergency drills, Superintendent Dr. Candis Finan reported, and exited the locked bus in the rear. She was found by another driver in campus maintenance yard and walked to school. A second incident involved a Delaware Valley Middle School student, who fell asleep aboard a Krise bus and was found by the driver as the bus’ next run was beginning an hour later. The incidents have prompted new policy involving sign-out sheets for drivers to confirm that buses have been checked and new signs to be placed in the back windows of empty buses, which will require drivers to walk to the back to place the signs. In a separate, Jan. 20, incident two Krise buses collided at a stop light on US Route 6, west of Clark Summit while en route to a swimming meet at Elk Lake High School. One of the buses was disabled, with “several thousand dollars damage,” and by Friday of that week four students and one adult reported minor injuries from the accident. But on the afternoon it occurred, none of those aboard reported injury, a local police officer offering assistance was told none was needed, and at the direction of the team coach, the occupants of both buses boarded the remaining serviceable bus and continued on to the swim meet. In future no one will leave the scene of an accident without directions from the district, police or emergency services, Finan said. The driver of the bus that rear-ended the first bus was suspended pending re-training and has since been reinstated, according Krise manager Barbara Hufnagel. The Delaware Valley driver who failed to find and wake the Second-Grader was suspended for ten days, Finan reported. The father of the girl, she added, was “very upset with me,” feeling the punishment was too harsh. Board members at the Feb. 7 work session without exception expressed astonishment at the mistakes that had been made and supported measures for improvement. The incident involving the Second-Grader also prompted a harsh exchange between board member John Vladar and DVES Principal Sonya Cole about the girl’s reported crying. Cole said the girl told her she was not frightened and Cole didn’t believe the report of her crying. “What you believe isn’t relevant,” Vladar replied. Calling for professionalism in their dealings, board member Pam Lutfy later said that Cole was owed an apology. Vladar did not respond. Later he said that while he did plan to speak to Cole , he said he did not plan to apologize.