Petition calls for severe penalties for drivers who ignore school bus stop lights, sign

A petition on WhiteHouse.gov is calling for lawmakers to create a federal bus stop safety law after several children were killed in recent weeks in crashes at or near school bus stops.

The petition called for penalties like jail time and a 90-day driver’s license suspension for drivers who refuse to stop for school busses.

“Children are being injured or killed due to people running the alternating reds on school busses,” the petition said. “Individual state laws are largely ineffective and typically have no significant penalty. We call upon our President and Congress to act by signing legislation that will keep our children safe.”

As of Monday morning, the petition had about 2,450 signatures. If it garners 100,000 signatures by Nov. 30, it will prompt a response from the White House within 60 days.

The petition was posted Oct. 31, on the same day that a 9-year-old boy was killed while trying to get to a school bus in Mississippi.

That week, several other injuries or deaths were reported in crashes nationwide.

A driver on Oct. 30 struck four children who were crossing the street to get to a school bus in Indiana. Three of the children, identified as 6-year-old twins Xzavier Ingle and Mason Ingle and their sister Alivia Stahl, 9, died at the scene.

On Nov. 1, a school bus driver in Pennsylvania found a 7-year-old boy dead after an apparent hit-and-run, authorities said.

Five children and two adults were injured on that same day in Tampa, Florida, when a vehicle struck them at a school bus stop.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, about 1,310 people died in school transportation-related crashes between 2006 and 2015, the latest years for which information was available.

About 300 of those killed were described as school-aged children under 18 years of age.

Cox Media Group