Pinellas officials say children cross dangerous streets at hundreds of stops.
By ROBERT FARLEY
Published October 28, 2004
Pinellas school officials said Wednesday they have identified as many as 300 school bus stops where children have been crossing roads with four or more lanes, violating a School Board directive.
The district's transportation department reviewed nearly 15,000 bus stops after Rebecca McKinney, a Clearwater High School student, was hit and killed by a pickup truck Oct. 8 as she tried to cross six-lane McMullen-Booth Road.
Just this week another 16-year-old Clearwater girl was hit by a car while trying to cross four-lane Drew Street to catch her school bus, according to police. The teenager was in stable condition Wednesday at Bayfront Medical Center.
"If there are 300 places where kids are having to cross multiple-lane highways, that's indicative of a systemic problem," said incoming superintendent Clayton Wilcox, whose first official day is Monday. "Clearly, we have not been as attentive to our policy as we could have been."
The 300 stops were identified by comparing students' addresses with their bus stops, said district spokesman Ron Stone. It was unclear how many students it affects, but the stops will be changed. The sheer number of affected bus stops underscores concerns about whether the district misused a computer system that selects bus stops.
The system, called Edulog, is designed to allow the district to identify and automatically flag hazardous roads.
Pending the results of its investigation into Rebecca McKinney's death, the district refuses to say whether Edulog was programmed to do that, or whether someone overrode the system.
Last week, Pinellas transportation chief Terry Palmer said that the district has a long-standing practice against dropping students at multiple-lane roads, even where there are crosswalks or traffic lights, and that any complaints lodged by parents result in immediate action.
Several parents, however, disagree.
On the first day of school in August, 11-year-old Justin Rose learned he had to cross 11 lanes of traffic just to get to his school bus: six-lane Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and five-lane Belcher Road.
His mother, Julie Selby, said she complained to the school district's transportation department but was repeatedly told the stop was under investigation.
On Sept. 9, Justin was struck by an SUV as he tried to cross Belcher Road, suffering multiple broken bones in his face and four broken teeth.
Selby now drives her son to his bus stop.
"It's insane," she said. "Something needs to be done about it."
On Wednesday, district officials said they will change Justin's bus stop within the week.
William Seyfried of Palm Harbor said he began driving his 13-year-old daughter to a bus stop after the Carwise Middle School student was assigned a stop that required her to cross six-lane Tampa Road.
"I think that was ludicrous," said Seyfried.
Octaverie Hall of St. Petersburg said she complained repeatedly last year when her 12-year-old son, a student at Lealman Intermediate School, was dropped on the far side of 54th Avenue N.
Hall said the bus driver assured her he doesn't open the bus door until traffic has stopped in both directions. But vehicles going in the opposite direction often don't stop, Hall said.
"There were days I'd cover my face," she said.
Hall said she pleaded in vain with transportation officials to change the stop. "No one seems to be listening," she said. "It's not as easy as transportation says. It's scary."
After she renewed her complaints last week, transportation officials told her they would fix the problem this week. "Why couldn't they do that last year?" she said. "A child has died because of this stuff."
On Tuesday, Clearwater student Emelee Letcher was struck after she ran into oncoming traffic about 20 feet west of a crosswalk, said Clearwater police Sgt. Doug Griffith.
Griffith said the teen's school bus was stopped eastbound on Drew Street near Fairwood Avenue where Letcher lives. The bus had its lights on and sign out as students boarded. Letcher was running late for the bus and tried to run across Drew Street.
Westbound traffic on Drew Street had a green light at the intersection and did not have to stop for the bus because it's a divided road, Griffith said.
Wilcox said he was troubled by the attitude some parents said they have encountered when calling transportation officials to complain. "The greatest tragedy, beyond the loss of life, is almost the callous disregard people (in the transportation department) have exhibited, at least through rumors," Wilcox said.
He said he plans to meet soon with transportation officials so that changes are made quickly but judiciously. He also promised a full investigation of the transportation department's actions.
"It's not going to go away," Wilcox said. "This is not the first loss of life around a bus stop. We just obviously have more work to do. We are not going to shirk our responsibility on this. People have to be accountable for the decisions they made."
Wilcox said he was chagrined to read in the St. Petersburg Times that transportation officials noted Rebecca McKinney's bus driver this year did not report the hazardous stop and should have. But current and former drivers said they had been told by supervisors that it was okay for high school students to cross multiple-lane highways.
"As I read it, I was appalled that people were trying to point a finger at the bus driver," Wilcox said. "Clearly, that's not where the bulk of responsibility lies."
- Times staff writer Chris Tisch contributed to this report.
