Portsmouth looking to make roads safer for school buses

Concerns raised about East, West Main roads

EastBayRI.com ·

PORTSMOUTH — The school district is ramping up efforts to keep students safe on local school buses.

In light of several school bus accidents involving other vehicles in recent months — the latest on Jan. 3 on Union Street — the School Committee is considering several paths to meet that objective. 

During its joint meeting with the Town Council on legislative priorities Monday, the committee asked local lawmakers to work toward improving safety on state roads by various means, including more “road diets” on narrow East Main Road. This is where the road is reduced from two lanes to one in either direction, with a center turn lane in key spots. 

The council supports the request, as does Police Chief Thomas Lee, who plans on drafting a resolution to the R.I. Department of Transportation (RIDOT), requesting the road diets on behalf of the town, school district and police.

Although no one was hurt in the recent accidents and no bus drivers were at fault, the committee asked to hear from Bill Roche, area general manager of First Student, which provides the district’s bus transportation.

Mr. Roche said there were two accidents involving school buses in fiscal year 2016, one of which was preventable. There were four (two preventable) in 2017 and three (one preventable) through December of this year, he said.

Richard Ruest, school resource officer for the middle, Melville and Hathaway schools, said police recorded seven school bus accidents in the 2017 calendar year in Portsmouth. Of those, five involved the local First Student fleet; the other two were outside carriers traveling to private schools, he said. There were no reported injuries, he said.

Mr. Roche acknowledged the local fleet could work to improve its pass rate for Rhode Island state inspections. It currently stands at 71 percent, compared to the state average of around 82 percent, he said.

“That’s a little lower than in other districts. We’re certainly working to improve that,” Mr. Roche said. “I know the dependability of the fleet has been questioned.” 

The buses are inspected thoroughly, however, and two full-time technicians are employed onsite, he said. In addition, six new vehicles have recently been brought in.

The “industry standard,” he added, is two preventable accidents per million miles of bus travel. Since First Student buses travel about 400,000 miles annually in Portsmouth and there were no accidents caused by its drivers, the company has not exceeded that standard locally, he said. 

Concerns over main roads

Committee Vice Chairwoman Emily Copeland said while the recent accidents were not the fault of the bus drivers, the committee still had concerns about the safety of East and West Main roads. She asked Mr. Roche whether those roads seemed “to have a higher-than-usual accident rate” compared to other state roads. 

Mr. Roche said there are always more accidents in congested areas such as Providence. “But I would say in a rural area like Tiverton or Little Compton … we’re no higher,” he said.

Committee member Allen Shers also said East Main Road, in particular, is too narrow to safely accommodate a bus and another similarly sized vehicle driving close by. “It’s just a situation where you’re asking for trouble,” he said.

Committee Chairwoman Terri Cortvriend asked Mr. Roche his opinion on whether seat belts should be required on school buses, a hot topic recently. Mr. Roche said he could go either way on the issue, but that today’s school buses are safer due to higher seats designed to cushion a student in the event of an accident. 

“In today’s buses, you can’t see over the seat,” he said.

Catching those who pass

Another safety issue is when motorists illegally pass a stopped school bus with flashing lights. Mr. Roche said First Student drivers try their best to record license plate numbers to report to police, but they’re usually too busy dealing with students getting on and off their buses at the time.

Officer Ruest said he believes many drivers are not even aware of the law prohibiting the passing of stopped buses, which carries a healthy fine of $285. Last year police issued 10 citations to drivers who passed buses, although the number of violators is much higher, he said. 

“You have to be in the right place at the right time,” said Officer Ruest.

Committee member John Wojichowski said it should be easier for police to catch drivers passing school buses. He remarked that it didn’t seem right “that I can get zinged for going through a toll without an E-ZPass but I can’t get zinged for passing a school bus.”

That could change, however. Chris DiIuro, director of finance and administration, said the district will soon be testing a system offered by Redflex which uses cameras mounted on buses to catch illegal drivers. 

“It will actually take a video of any car or vehicle that drives past any bus that’s flashing,” he said.

The district has sent a survey to First Student to get feedback on particular problem areas in town, then Redflex will be contacted to test a couple of routes with cameras, Mr. DiIuro said. If the problem is found to be widespread, the district may consider using the Redflex system on more buses permanently, he said.

“We don’t know if we’ll see enough violations to support it,” he said.

Portsmouth School Department, school buses, Portsmouth School Committee, First Student