An Ocean County superintendent is reminding the district’s transportation vendors that they can be fined $500 for certain violations, according to a recent memo.
As of Sept. 1, companies will be fined $500 if their bus drivers wear earbuds or headphones while students are on board, operate the bus while students are standing or hanging out of the windows and pull away from a stop before students are all correctly seated, reads the letter from Lakewood Superintendent Laura Winters.The Aug. 16 letter also reminds the bus companies that changing routes or stops without approval is prohibited.
All contractors must have a dispatcher or live person on duty to answer phones between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. or until all buses are clear, whichever is later, the letter said. Buses also must have working two-way radios, a child alert system, GPS monitoring systems, digital/audio recording devices, child restraint system and route identification. Failure to do so can result in fines up to $300.But students around New Jersey have become injured, sometimes fatally, by buses and their drivers.around her neck. The bus monitor sat a few feet away looking at her phone and wearing earbuds for 14 minutes, court documents later revealed.
In March, a nine-year-old boy in Lakewood was hospitalized after he was struck by a school bus after getting off the bus. Other bus drivers serving the district have