Superintendent to join law enforcement for Operation S.A.F.E. Student
Published 10:55 am Wednesday, January 29, 2014
State Superintendant of Public Instruction, Randy Dorn, will accompany the Washington State Patrol and Bellevue Police in the initial development of “Operation S.A.F.E. Student” today, Thursday, in Bellevue during the morning bus route.
Operation Speed, Aggressive Driving, Fail to Stop, Enforcement (S.A.F.E.) is expected to be a proactive and educational approach to helping protect children when exiting and entering school buses while stopped. A one day survey last year in Washington State showed that there were over 1,500 violations involving school bus stops. Thirty two of those violations included vehicles passing on the right; where students exit and enter the bus.
The WSP Commercial Enforcement Bureau began looking into this safety issue in December 2013 after complaints about an excessive amount of violations along bus routes in various cities throughout the Puget Sound area. Two days of gathering data in the City of Bellevue provided disturbing evidence of several infractions. Among the 30 violations noted by troopers and officers, nine were for “paddle violations” and 11 were for speed.
