The Lake school district saw a 16 percent increase in the number of incidents of illegal passing of school buses, according to data released by the Florida Department of Education.
During the one-day survey, bus drivers reported 171 incidents compared with 143 the previous school year.
“It’s an issue,” district supervisor of transportation Scott Pfender said. “The most dangerous place for the kids is not on the bus, but getting on and off the bus.”
State law says that when a school bus is stopped with the stop sign displayed drivers must come to a complete stop until the stop sign is retracted.
Pfender said on average of four to five kids are killed annually while on a school bus nationwide. The number of deaths balloons to between 12 and 14 children who are killed while getting on and off school busses.
While youngsters are crossing streets, they are supposed to cross in front of the bus and look at the driver. The driver then checks to make sure nobody is illegally passing the bus, and is supposed to wave the child across the street, Pfenders said.
Ninety-three vehicles illegally passed busses from the front, and 69 from the rear in the district, records show.
The passings amount to 1.26 illegal passings per bus driver participating, an increase from 1.11 in the same survey last year.
Statewide drivers reported the most incidents to the front and left side of the bus.
“[Bus drivers] call it in out of their frustration sometimes, but we’re wasting law enforcements time if they don’t see it,” Pfender said.
For motorists in a rush, passing buses illegally could prove costly. A ticket for the offense in Lake County costs $271, Lake County Sgt. Fred Jones said.
Lake bus drivers reported 83 illegal passings in the morning, compared to 79 in the afternoon.
Orange County reported the most incidents in the state with 2,172 passings, up 27 percent from the year before, the data shows.
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