Ohio House passes school bus safety bill spurred by deadly Clark County crash

Yahoo

a day ago

Jun. 11—Anyone caught passing a school bus illegally would face significant fines and penalties to their driver's license under an Ohio House bill that passed 88-to-0.
House Bill 3, the School Bus Safety Act, sponsored by Reps. Bernie Willis, R-Springfield, and Cecil Thomas, D-Cincinnati, would appropriate $10 million from Ohio Lottery funds to add cameras to school buses and educate drivers about school bus safety.
Part of the $10 million would go toward school bus safety grants for local school districts.
Cameras could be installed on school buses to record people improperly passing a school bus and those recordings could then be used in a criminal case, according to the bill.
The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.
Willis introduced the bill last General Assembly following a fatal crash in Clark County on State Route 41. Hermanio Joesph, a Haitian immigrant who did not have a valid driver's license, crossed over the center line into the oncoming lane, hitting a Northwestern Local Schools bus and flipping it over in August 2023.
Aiden Clark, 11, died and about two dozen other students were injured. The state put together a school bus safety task force afterwards, which made several recommendations to improve school bus safety, all of which Willis included in the bill.
"This bill has been a major collaborative effort between numerous interested parties across the state and nation," Willis said.
Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said the opportunity for safety grants will help schools add seat belts, should they want to, along with many different safety upgrades outlined in the bill.
"This issue comes down to sculpting (law) so that locals have their own option," Huffman said. "There are many local school districts that want to add seat belts and have the money to do it. Some have the money to do it and they don't want to add seat belts, for whatever reason."
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said the bill will help "make sure that children are safe to and from school."
Paul Imhoff of the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, which represents Ohio's public school superintendents, testified in favor of the bill.
He said it's clear thousands of drivers are disobeying Ohio's laws around school buses, and cracking down on people who don't follow the rules will be a good idea.
"We urge you to support H.B. 3, which will improve the safety of Ohio students during their journeys to and from school," Imhoff said.
Rudoph J. Breglia, of the School Bus Safety Alliance, testified in favor of the bill but additionally advocated for seat belts to be put in school buses. The state task force did not recommend using seat belts, saying there could be unintended consequences for kids who can't get out.