For the first time, there could be money on the way to fund a grant program that Ohio’s school bus safety task force recommended earlier this year.
It’s aimed at helping districts pay for safety features on buses.
News Center 7′s John Bedell talked to the Miami Valley state lawmaker leading the legislative push for state funding.
Parents and grandparents talked about the safety features they’d like to see on school buses.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
TRENDING STORIES:
- McDonald’s can ‘restore confidence’ after deadly Quarter Pounder E. coli outbreak, CEO says
- Teenage boy taken into custody after 5 people were found dead in their home
- Baby shot, killed after toddler finds loaded rifle in car
“Probably seat belts,” Brenda Bond of Northridge said.
“I think they should have a stop on both sides of the bus,” Deborah Honeycutt of West Carrollton said.
This week, News Center 7 learned state lawmakers have taken a big step toward approving the first funds that would pay for a needs-based grant program to help districts pay for school bus safety features and provide advanced bus driver training to districts at no cost.
“Our finance folks were able to find us about $25 million,” Republican State Rep. Bernie Willis, from Springfield said.
News Center 7 has been talking to Rep. Willis for months about his work to craft this legislation. He’s dubbed it “The School Bus Safety Act.”
The bill would also change Ohio law to stiffen penalties for drivers who break traffic laws around school buses.
Willis’ bill would establish minimum fines and tougher legal trouble for drivers who pass a school bus while children are loading or unloading.
Creating the needs-based grant program and creating tougher penalties for drivers who break traffic laws in school zones and around school buses were among the recommendations Ohio’s School Bus Safety Task Force released in January.
“It assigns a minor misdemeanor for the first offense and for a second offense, that elevates to a fourth-degree misdeamoner,” Willis said.
Willis said the goal is to get the bill to Gov. Mike DeWine’s office by the end of the year.
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]