School buses lined up. (Photo: Kevin Hardy/Stateline.)
Last week, Ohio lawmakers passed a bill increasing penalties for illegally overtaking a stopped school bus.
Ohio House of Representatives Bill 3 it passed the Ohio Senate and the House agreed with the changes, so it now goes to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. Ohio Reps. Cecil Thomas, D-Cincinnati, and Bernie Willis, R-Springfield, introduced the bill.
“As a parent of three young children who board the bus every morning and get off the bus every afternoon, I truly appreciate that my colleagues are taking the time to work on this and improve the safety of all children in Ohio,” she said state Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson.
The bill increases penalties for illegally passing a stopped school bus with a fine ranging from $250 to $1,000. Repeat offenses can result in a driver’s license suspension, a required safety course and a $2,000 fine. The current fine for illegally passing a stopped school bus in Ohio ranges from $0 to $500.
The bill too allows cameras on school buses to be used as a means of recording drivers illegally overtaking a school bus.
“The purpose of this legislation is really to change behavior and stop those who do not put our children in danger by recklessly passing a stopped school bus,” she said. State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green.
“There is no destination that a driver needs to reach that is worth more than the life of a child.”
Gavarone said the Ohio State Highway Patrol issued more than 16,000 tickets for passing stopped school buses between 2018 and August 2023.
“That’s over 16,000 times a child’s life was at risk due to the reckless action of a driver,” he added. she said. “No parent should have to worry about their child traveling to and from school.”
The Ohio Department of Public Safety reported that in 2021, there were more than 14,000 citations for illegal passing of school buses over a four-year period, Paul Imhoff, director of government relations for the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, said during his testimony.
The bill does not require wearing seat belts on buses.
Seat belts are optional on gigantic school buses weighing more than 10,000 pounds 63One percent of Ohio school districts have at least one bus with seat belts, said Lacey Snoke, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education and Labor.
According to the data, only eight states require seat belts on school buses: New York, New Jersey, Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada and Texas. National Conference of State Legislatures.
Several states allow cameras, and Nevada, Arkansas and New York have both laws.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine established the 2023 Ohio School Bus Safety Task Force after Aiden Clark, a Northwestern Local Schools elementary school student, was killed in a school bus crash. Working Group issued 17 recommendations last year, but requiring seat belts on buses was not one of them.
The National Transportation Safety Board recommends that states require school buses to have shoulder and lap seat belts for all passengers.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 2013 and 2022, there were 976 fatal school transportation-related traffic accidents, resulting in 1,082 deaths.
The only lawmakers to vote against the bill were Republican state senators Nathan Manning and Kristina Roegner.
Follow Ohio Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry on X Or on Bluesky.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
