Ohio’s new school bus safety task force holds first meeting

COLUMBUS — The 14 members of Ohio’s new school bus safety task force did some hands-on learning on Monday in their first-ever meeting.

They saw how state troopers inspect the more than 19,000 school buses in the state twice a year.

School bus safety has been talked about for decades, but Gov. Mike DeWine confirmed to News Center 7 that this task force was spurred by the death of 11-year-old Aiden Clark in German Township last month.

Clark was killed when a driver went left of center, hitting his Northwestern Local School bus, and knocking it on its top.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Student killed, over 20 other students injured after school bus crash in Clark Co.

“We know, statistically, that school buses are a lot safer than putting your child in a car. That is just statistically true. But that is not any kind of solace or consolation to the families from Clark County who had children on that bus. Who lost a child, who had a child injured,” DeWine said.

The task force includes other state cabinet members, a bus driver, a mechanic, and a doctor from a children’s hospital in Columbus, among others.

On Monday, they started the process of what the governor has described as this group taking a “holistic look” at school bus safety.

News Center 7 asked DeWine how he thinks the group’s first meeting went.

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“I think it’s good. The first thing they got was an explanation by the highway patrol of what the standard checks are that occur every single year for every bus, every school bus in the state of Ohio, and then actually for most buses twice. So it was good for them to get that basis to start with. Today is kind of a scene setting for them. Then we’ll get more specifics as they move forward,” DeWine said.

The group will not have the power to mandate any changes but DeWine said there should be serious consideration of the recommendations they come back with at the end of the year.

“We have an obligation, I think to be able to say to the public: we are doing everything we can to make that school bus trip as safe as possible,” DeWine said.

Monday’s meeting was the first of five meetings the group has before it issued a report with recommendations in December.

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