The Call of Duty

Publication:The Oklahoman;
Date:Jul 20, 2007; Section:Front page; Page Number:4

Most school bus drivers are free to gab on phone • Only 13 states ban the practice; Oklahoma isn’t among them.
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures By Scripps Howard News Service

Despite the widely recognized dangers, school bus drivers in most of the country are free to chat on their cell phones — or even punch in text messages — while transporting America’s children to class and back.

In fact, only 13 states forbid the practice, except in emergencies. And even in some of the areas where it is banned, enforcement is so spotty that citizen watchdogs and news media investigators have had no problem documenting scofflaws.

“The only kind of communication device a bus driver should be using ... is an installed portable radio. And even then, we would recommend they use it while they are stopped,” said Pete Japikseis, a co-director of the American School Bus Council and a staffer at the Ohio Department of Education.

That is also the conclusion of the National Transportation Safety Board that last December called for a coast-to-coast ban. “Professional drivers who have dozens of passengers’ lives entrusted to them should devote their full attention to their task,” NTSB Mark Rosenker said.

Though the federal safety board called on it to do so, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has not issued regulations barring cell phone use by those who drive school buses.

Some states or school districts take an intermediate route in trying to curtail the practice by imposing administrative rules that critics say amount to hand slaps and are subject to little oversight.

And even in states with laws, cell phone use can remain pervasive, observers have found.

What about scofflaws where chatting is banned?

Here are some documented cases in states where cell phone talking is banned for bus drivers, but where drivers were seen ignoring the law:

• In Los Angeles, where it has been illegal since 2004 for school bus operators to drive while talking on a phone, a TV crew in May spotted a driver making a right turn one-handed while on the phone and holding a cup.

• The same month, a citizen in Ogden, Utah, snapped pictures of a school-district driver steering with her elbows as she talked on the phone.

• In Texas, where state law bans the practice, TV news cameras caught a driver in Dallas rolling over curbs as she held a cell-phone conversation that lasted at least 18 minutes.

What’s the scope of the problem?

To date, none of the 25 million children who ride 475,000 school buses each school day have died as a result of a handful of wrecks tied to the drivers’ use of cell phones.

But experts predict that some will if there is not a concerted crackdown.

Crashes include:

• One that caused devastating injury to a young schoolgirl from Philadelphia. She and dozens of other children were traveling home from a field trip to the Baltimore aquarium when a tractor-trailer drifted into the school bus’ lane and the vehicles collided. The bus driver seemed oblivious, witnesses would later say.

• In 2004, a suburban Washington, D.C. bus driver was so busy chatting on his handsfree phone that he failed to notice a looming “low clearance” bridge that he slammed into.

• In 2005, a Maryland school bus driver lost control while driving with one hand as she answered her cell. The bus slid down an embankment.

States with bans
• Arizona
• Kentucky
• Arkansas
• Massachusetts
• California
• New Jersey
• Connecticut
• Rhode Island
• Delaware
• Tennessee
• Georgia
• Texas
• Illinois
In North Carolina, a school bus cell-ban bill is now on the governor’s desk.

Oklahoma ties
Oklahoma does not have a state law that prohibits cell phone usage while driving for any drivers, including school bus drivers. The only law Oklahoma has is a prohibition on local municipalities restricting cell phone usage, meaning only a statewide policy can be put into place.

An attempt to ban talking on a cell phone while driving failed to get a hearing last session.