Wednesday's bus tragedy was wake-up call to all districts, school officials say

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Some area school district officials say the tragedy of an East High School girl killed by a bus has led them to review bus-safety protocols.

Faith McCullough-Wooster, 14, tumbled down a hill Wednesday afternoon with another classmate on East High Avenue near the school. Faith fell into the path of a bus.

“What happened was horrific,” said Colleen Murphy, director of transportation for Austintown schools. “Parents need to consider this case — I think it was a wake-up call for all of Northeast Ohio.”

Many school districts reported they do extensive education on bus-safety protocols with their elementary students at the beginning of the school year. Murphy said she constantly gets phone calls from adults on safety questions.

There are multiple ways districts try to deter accidents.

Austintown Superintendent Vincent Colaluca said his district has a “positive behavior system process” in place to educate kids on proper ways to act on the bus.

Winnie Timpson, chief of transportation for Youngstown City Schools, said students are cautioned to stay out of what’s called the “danger zone.” That’s the area 10 feet around the bus, “to the front, back and around the sides.”

“In your car you have blind spots. Well, multiply that by 10,” Timpson said.

Many people believe that since a bus driver sits up high in the bus, he or she has a better vantage point, but an entire car can be obscured in the area behind a bus’s mirror, she said.

Read more reaction in Saturda's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.