Latrobe bus drivers are out on the road early in the morning and in the afternoon, transporting students to and from school. One of their biggest priorities is making sure that everyone gets to their destination safely when students are in their care. Some people in the Latrobe community ignore the rules of bus safety when it comes to driving on the road.

Mark Kraynick, DMJ Transportation Safety Coordinator takes great pride in his job and cares about making sure that all students are safe at all times whenever they enter a bus. Whenever there is an incident with bus safety, there seems to be a common theme happening each time. “I would have to say that the biggest pattern I notice whenever there is an accident is that people are distracted by their surroundings such as their phones when they are driving,” said Kraynick.

Nina Beatrice, Communications Director for DMJ Transportation has also noticed another main pattern that has been a cause for concern with accidents with buses. “I would have to say that the biggest problem that I notice is people like to pass the buses, but it doesn’t work and causes a problem,” said Beatrice.

Kraynick makes sure that bus drivers are qualified for their job so that he knows that they have the ability to keep kids safe on the road. “Our school bus drivers need to obtain a certain type of license and that is a Commercial Driver’s License and in order to get one, they need to complete 20 hours of driving and need to recertify that license every four years,” said Kraynick. 

Kraynick enjoys going the extra mile when it comes to bus safety at DMJ Transportation because of how important it is to prevent accidents in our district and to prevent any student or driver from being injured. “At our company we have multiple ways we like to remind our drivers of the guidelines. For example, we have Safety Tip Tuesday, quarterly safety meetings, and radio blasts just so they have all those thoughts in the back of their minds when they are on the road,”said Kraynick.

Kraynick has a big responsibility when it comes to being Safety Coordinator because has to make sure that the whole district is safe and sometimes it can be a difficult task to keep up with it all. “I would probably have to say that the hardest part of my job is being responsible for 250 drivers and vehicles and making sure they get to where they need to be,” said Kraynick. 

Kraynick has noticed trends when it comes to not following bus safety guidelines and hopes that they don’t continue in future school years so that buses on the road can be as safe as possible. “My biggest concern is vehicles like to pass buses while students are boarding and we have tried some things to prevent this such as thinking about extending the stop sign on the bus. Another big concern is distracted driving because in today’s society we are always distracted by something which has already caused two accidents this year that were caused by distracted drivers,” said Kraynick.

When it comes to the community, Kraynick believes that there are some things that people forget about when they are driving such as paying attention to what’s in front of them. “Everybody has knowledge when it comes to driving but I think that people just need to be aware of what’s all around them and they don’t need to be in a hurry when they are driving behind a bus because it would really help for more accidents to be prevented in our district,” said Kraynick.

 Beatrice believes when people forget about the simple rules when it comes to bus safety, a little reminder now and then never hurt anyone to also help prevent accidents. “Our goal is to educate people because it’s very important to make sure that all drivers have knowledge when they are on the road,” said Beatrice.

Whenever there is a school bus on the road, remember all the rules and remember basic bus safety so that all students and drivers remain safe. It is crucial to prevent any more accidents from happening and that can happen when everyone remembers how important bus safety rules are in our district.