About 6,700 students returned to school Wednesday in White Settlement, and police officers were riding on buses with them. White Settlement officers were watching for drivers who pass school buses while they have their lights on and stop sign activated.
"We want people to be aware they need to stop," says Sgt. Michelle Lenoir. "It is the law, and people do need to be vigilant to make sure children are safe."
"I'm a former truck driver, so I've seen a lot," says bus driver Allan Winston. "I've seen a lot of inattention, a lot of people looking down at their phones trying to figure out where they're going. Inattention, failure to yield, a couple times people blew by the stop sign, speeding around me. It's just impatience."
Lenoir and Winston greeted students along their route Wednesday morning. Winston also helped families who weren't sure which bus kids should get on, confirming with each student which school he or she was going to. Drivers had a list of bus routes to make sure kids got on the right one.
At the stops, Lenoir watched passing traffic. At the first stop on their route Wednesday morning, a pick-up truck passed the bus while its lights were on.
"What I'll do is go ahead and radio the information to the waiting units," she says. "They go ahead and stop it. At that point, they go ahead and determine what enforcement action needs to be taken."
Officers were following each bus and would pull cars over. In the first 45 minutes of the effort Wednesday morning, White Settlement Police had pulled over 12 drivers.
"I made a traffic stop here with our assistant chief," says Police Chief Chris Cook. "Some of the reasons given are people running late for work. That's never a good excuse because kids are unpredictable. They might enter that roadway. Nobody, no community member, wants to strike a kid."
In one case, Cook stopped a driver who was speeding through a school zone because he was late getting his daughter to school. He says police will focus on enforcement, but they also want to have a visible presence Wednesday to remind drivers kids in White Settlement are returning to school.
"Here's what's really surprising to us: Most of our school bus passing today, they're passing right by the stop sign, or they're going around the bus," he says. "Normally, you wouldn't think of the violations being that egregious, but that's really what our officers have encountered this morning."
Cook says White Settlement police will continue enforcement on a smaller scale for several more weeks. He says not every bus will have an officer, but those that do will call for a patrol car to stop anyone who drives through a stop.
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