Misawa students, teachers learn school bus safety

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  With tire heights on base school buses as tall as some of its youngest riders, Misawa's Department of Defense Education Activity transportation management emphasizes bus safety training to prevent student accidents from occurring.

Chris Zeitvogel, DODEA transportation manager, taught preschool through sixth grade students, and teachers from Cummings and Sollars Elementary Schools, the dos and don'ts of school bus safety during the last two weeks of September.

"We stress school buses are inherently safe, and inside the bus is an especially safe place to be," said Mr. Zeitvogel, "but because the bus is so big, students must take care outside and around the vehicle."

Children are most vulnerable after disembarking a bus, he added. The end of the day is when excited children are most likely to do something unpredictable like run into traffic or horseplay.

Mr. Zeitvogel taught classes of 15 to 27 students to remember the different zones surrounding a bus. The closest, called the danger zone, is where children can get trapped or run over if they stand close to the tires or if they recover dropped items underneath the bus.

Children also learn not to go behind the bus, out of the driver's view, and not to run into the street where they may not be seen by oncoming traffic.

The smallest passengers were not the only ones who took something away from the training. While in Japan, where teachers may be encumbered by language barriers off base, they too, learn bus safety and emergency procedures.

"We show teachers safety and emergency devices so they are prepared in case of an accident during a field trip," said Mr. Zeitvogel. "Teachers are shown methods to enter our buses from the outside, as well as how to activate the emergency brake and emergency doors."

During a training class, Barbara Thomascall, a Cummings school teacher, tried prying the bus's main door open from the street. After no luck, she discovered a hidden emergency door handle, which allowed her access onto the bus. Training taught her how to stop a runaway bus and she noted its emergency exits differ from those found in the United States.

"This training impacts me as both a teacher and a parent with two children riding the bus every day," Mrs. Thomascall said. "I need to know not only how the safety and emergency features work, but I also need to know what the students have been taught."

She encourages parents at home to ask their children what they learned about bus safety.

"Allow them to 'teach' you what they learned," she said. "Remember too: Rules in Japan are different - traffic is not required to stop when children get on or off a bus. Remind them often not to cross until they have checked traffic."