School district works to catch dangerous drivers

Drivers on the Central Coast need to start obeying the rules of the road. That’s what a district’s transportation department said when it comes to driving around school buses and the kids that ride them. Salinas City Elementary School District said stop means stop. Bus drivers said countless cars are seen breaking the law and zoom by. Now the district is working on getting cameras for the outside of buses to catch those drivers in the act.

Laurie Grice has been driving school buses for 35 years and said she can write a book about all the close calls she’s seen behind the wheel.

“Too many close calls to count. We’ve had bus stops where buses have been hit, of course it doesn’t just happen once,” said Grice.

The law is simple, if you see lights flashing, stop. It doesn’t matter if you have enough room to pass by a bus, you break the law you get written up by the bus driver and that information goes straight to California Highway Patrol. Salinas Elementary School District buses have cameras inside. The problem is those cameras can’t capture all the crazy reckless stuff that’s going on outside.

“As far as exterior cameras they are in the works, we are in the process of revamping the whole vehicle list that I have,” said Transportation Director, Richard Enriquez.

The exterior cameras will cost a couple hundred dollars for each bus. They’ll be an extension of the $5,000 interior camera system already installed. Until the new cameras arrive, the school districts hoping drivers will stop. Bus drivers said the most dangerous areas to find drivers illegal pass buses are in school zones. One resident who lives across the street from Loma Vista Elementary said her kid almost got hit.

“My son was right there, and this lady could have hit him, and stuff like this happens all the time. I mean because they don’t respect the buses, they don’t respect the safety of the kids,” said Salinas resident Maria de Franco.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo has introduced a bill that would give all school districts the option to install bus cameras. As for Salinas Elementary’s district, they hope to have those cameras going by next year.