Request Congress to Extend OSHA Protections to School Bus Operations and School Buses.
Public Comments (1,129)
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Aug 25th, 2017don s. from Palm Coast, FL signed.
Aug 23rd, 2017Thomas V. from Saint Augustine, FL signed.
Aug 23rd, 2017Thomas V. from Saint Augustine, FL signed.
Aug 22nd, 2017Kim B. from Palmdale, CA signed.
Aug 20th, 2017Someone from Jacksonville, FL writes:
How can the school boards or anyone think it is safe for anyone to be on a bus with no ac public transportation buses have it why would it be ok for that but not for our children to have ac and be comfortable on their way to school and home and not feel sick or over heated and drivers as well transporting them. What is wrong with this picture Temperature can exceed in the triple digits on a bus. It is totally insane and if it rains all windows get closed and windows get steamed how is that healthy or safe.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelAug 20th, 2017Toni P. from Jacksonville, FL signed.
Aug 13th, 2017Kristi A. from Glendale, AZ writes:
Arizona generally has 115 degree heat most of the year. I had to resign from my job because I am physically unable to drive in that heat with no AC without becoming very I'll, including severe dizziness which would make me unsafe to operate. We had 41% humidity with a large thunderstorm and flooding due within the hour, making even putting my windows down impossible. I was told, not operating the bus without AC would be "job abandonment and insubordination." I immediately resigned. I should not have had to. There should be a law in place for places such as this. Our children should not have to suffer heat exhaustion and severe heat illnesses for a lack of AC.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelAug 9th, 2017Someone from Orlando, FL signed.
Jul 26th, 2017Don F. from Rio Vista, CA writes:
I am a school bus driver for River Delta Unified in Rio Vista, CA. I drive my bus across a ferry from Rio Vista to Ryer Island ( this ferry crosses the Sacramento River every twenty minutes). I typically have 60 students on board my bus. At times (due to traffic, road closures, problems with students) we arrive at the ferry landing after the ferry has departed. This causes a twenty minute wait (for the next crossing) in 95 plus degree temperatures, with no air movement, and a bus full of hot angry students. So far my my solution is, after the ferry transports us to Ryer Island, I seek out a farm that is irrigating the fields and park near the sprinklers to douse the students with water.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 26th, 2017Don F. from Rio Vista, CA writes:
I am a school bus driver for River Delta Unified in Rio Vista, CA. I drive my bus across a ferry from Rio Vista to Ryer Island ( this ferry crosses the Sacramento River every twenty minutes). I typically have 60 students on board my bus. At times (due to traffic, road closures, problems with students) we arrive at the ferry landing after the ferry has departed. This causes a twenty minute wait (for the next crossing) in 95 plus degree temperatures, with no air movement, and a bus full of hot angry students. So far my my solution is, after the ferry transports us to Ryer Island, I seek out a farm that is irrigating the fields and park near the sprinklers to douse the students with water.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 23rd, 2017Someone from Buford, GA signed.
Jul 21st, 2017Laura B. from Levittown, NY writes:
I am 60 years old and I am driving for a summer camp. No AC in any of the busses. Children are overheated and I can barley take itREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 16th, 2017Someone from Livingston, LA writes:
I am a bus driver in for Livingston Parish School Board and I can tell you that I have had to buy waters for all my kids on the bus due to the high temps and if you live in Louisiana you know during the school years we don't get a winter. We need newer buses and air for the drivers and kids. When temps get up 102 and maybe more it's time.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 13th, 2017Someone from Norfolk, VA signed.
Jul 9th, 2017Someone from Austin, TX writes:
It is hard to believe that school buses in places like Texas operate without A/C during the summer, when outside temperature routinely exceeds 100 degrees and in the bus is even higher. It is a matter of time until a kid gets sick or even worse a driver gets sick while driving and loses control of the bus. Please take care of this now.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 22nd, 2017Someone from Tinley Park, IL writes:
I am a paraeducator in a Summer School program for Special Needs students. I ride the bus with 6 students some of which are harnessed for safety reasons and one is in a wheelchair, non-verbal and has many health implications. It is unimaginable that the importance of air conditioning on these buses is not an absolute priority. Some students I have worked with in the past have even had seizures that were brought on my excessive heat. I understand there are budgets and such to consider but the safety and health of children should be on the top of the list! This is not ok. Parents please speak up. This is an important issue that I have seen ignored for too long.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 12th, 2017Veatriz Q. from Fort Lee, NJ signed.
Jun 9th, 2017Someone from Chicago, IL signed.
Jun 9th, 2017Carlitta T. from Chicago, IL signed.
Jun 3rd, 2017Marsha B. from Sanderson, FL writes:
Please provide air conditioned buses for our children. My grandson suffers from allergies and chronic asthma. He's gotten off the bus, vomiting because he's so hot, he can't breathe and coughs until he vomits. Perhaps if you tried breathing through a straw, you would understand what it feels like to not be able to breathe. Compound that suffocating feeling with humid heat!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 2nd, 2017Nancy G. from Glen Saint Mary, FL signed.
Jun 2nd, 2017Someone from Glen Saint Mary, FL signed.
Jun 2nd, 2017Someone from Glen Saint Mary, FL signed.
Jun 2nd, 2017Someone from Glen Saint Mary, FL signed.
Jun 2nd, 2017Someone from Glen Saint Mary, FL signed.
Jun 2nd, 2017Someone from Glen Saint Mary, FL signed.
May 29th, 2017Kara W. from Marietta, GA signed.
May 19th, 2017stephanie b. from New Gloucester, ME writes:
Please protect our childeren and the drivers from heat sicknesses. Illnesses dehydration. Germ growth ect by making congress. OSHA please send me a legal parent a packet of legal petetions to help keep kids n school bus drivers stay cool n healthey and avoid the cranky fighting n yelling bulling ect that heat exhaustion can cause on the school busses around the united states of america and particularyly at MSAD 15 in Gray Maine.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelMay 17th, 2017Someone from Flint, MI signed.
May 17th, 2017Someone from Flint, MI signed.
May 17th, 2017Someone from Flint, MI signed.
Apr 26th, 2017Someone from Sanderson, FL signed.
Apr 26th, 2017Carol K. from Macclenny, FL writes:
As a school bus driver I can tell you that the heat is overwhelming. Many days, at the end of the route the physical symptoms are overwhelming. Dehydration, nausea, shakiness, and exhaustion. Not to mention, the students that also experience the same issues. Why is it that only the ESE buses are air conditioned and not ALL? It is proven that the cooler temps decrease the likely hood of viral and bacterial infections. Please make it mandatory that ALL BUSES, especially in the state of Florida are air conditioned.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelApr 25th, 2017Marilyn P. from Glen Saint Mary, FL writes:
I drive a bus in the Florida heat daily! We need air conditioning in a state where the temps go into the triple digit numbers and the windows down give no relief from the heat. You stop and the air stops moving thru the bus....Is it going to take the death of a child to make air conditioned buses mandatory?REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelMar 31st, 2017Marcos T. from Las Cruces, NM writes:
I drive a school bus and last year we had temperatures as high as 117 inside non-air conditioned school buses that some students were in for over 2 hours. The driver over three hours. Do we need to wait for an accident due to a driver having heat stroke?REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelDec 12th, 2016Someone from Woodstock, GA writes:
Unless you have driven a school bus with no air in 100° weather you have no clue.. I put a thermometer on my bus it was 130° on my bus with the windows down. All adults that don't agree with mandatory AC should be made to drive a bus in the summer.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelOct 18th, 2016Someone from Alton, IL writes:
I think all buses in Illinois Should have AC it is ridculously hot and I know it can cost up to $14.000 to outfit a School Bus to have AC, I know that can cost a lot BUT, I think if companies, the government don't want to get sued for the driver and there kids for getting heat induced illiness. And kids will not be sick when it is hot out! And I agree with other signers, ALL BUSES SHOULD HAVE AC! I get it can cost anywhere from a $1,000 to 14,000 to outfit a bus to have AC.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelOct 18th, 2016Kathleen S. from Laurel, DE writes:
my concern is a 70 year old driving a school bus that is insulin dependent,how is this right,kids are at risk and any other driver on the road if this driver has any episode from the diabetes!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelOct 14th, 2016Athena A. from Jacksonville, FL writes:
They should definitely start with the states that are closer to the equator I personally live in Duval County which is the largest city in the United States. There are 900+ buses the move about the city on a daily basis. Because there is a magnet system within the school previously designed to promote desegregation buses tend to be on the road anywhere from a few minutes to an hour and some an hour and a half. It is illegal to leave a child in a hot car it should be illegal for these buses to stop and wait 20 minutes at a time after leaving one school to transfer kids to bus that hasn't arrived fromanother school before going home. They call this a hub. Exhaustion, fatigue and extreme sweating are regular conditions of the children on these buses. We are also a city that has multiple train tracks running throughout and when I train stops a bus that extends the time I had a bus show up outside of my child care facility and the children on the bus were crying in drenched in sweat I ran to the store next-door and ask the bus driver to wait so that I could purchase them bottles of water and figure that a child would die before reaching your destination which was another 25 to 30 minutes after our you have been on the bus for an hour and a half due to being stopped by a train. The only bus is at this time required to have air condition are the exceptional student education bus is more children ride based on their educational plan. A parent shouldn't have to choose between a comfortable ride home for the children and a quality education, meaning the neighborhood school that may be failing year after year or a school in another neighborhood that the families have w higher socioeconomic status.. Duvall County is one of the top 10 largest school districts in the United States as well as its home one of the top 10 high schools in the United States. The population is increasing which mean the traffic is increasing therefore school buses are necessary. Buses are a safe measure of transportation when it comes to accidents and they also helps reduce the amount of vehicles on the road each day but there has got to be some form of reprieve for these children who sit on the bus such as mine for an hour each day in sweltering temperatures for more than the nations average summer season. This is nothing more than a criminal offense being hidden by bad budgeting. I can't figure out why the federal government and states still prints things and color color- ink cost a lot of money. It would be better to print things in black-and-white to have air-conditioned buses. What is the disciplinary action for a bus driver that tells the children they can't with the windows down to get a breeze because they don't have the energy to walk the bus after their shift and put the Windows back up. With 1 million traffic lights throughout the city, as it's not a very rule place, so there's a lot of stop and go versus a continuous ride to allow air to flow through the bus. Sure the driver is equipped with a nice large window that they can open up near their seat and a little blowing fan. What about the large rainey season, then they riders have to choose being soaking wet and ruining their school materials or being hot. Sure the rain helps reduce the temperature but it's not drastic. Someone needs to be held accountable for these "near death" situations and it shouldn't take the death of a child to fix the problem. I'm sure that they will have the coroner attribute the loss of life to previously existing conditions. I dedicate my days and nights to the to the profession of early childhood education. Five different buses stop at one of my childcare centers on the westside of Jacksonville and I can see the difference in the children that have been on a bus for an extended amount of time and what their temperament and productivity is when it comes to completing their homework. There are even those are that have to be woke up on a daily basis after being on the bus for over an hour and the poor children always seem to need a new shirt because theirs is soaking wet. They are thirsty beyond belief, some of them haven't even had an opportunity to use the bathroom before leaving school. With such strict classroom rules with the teacher not considerate of their transportation home. What about the children that eat lunch as early as 10:30 AM and the teachers don't provide a snack time and they arentallowed to eat on the bus and then they are not reaching their destination until five 5:30 PM. Visualize this hungry and thirsty child coming off of bus with temperatures over 100° It's only a matter of time before something happens to someone as precious child that cannot be replaced with any monetary value. In the Bora bus driver who typically have a decent hourly wage compared to what the minimum is but not only are they on the route of one child there are three levels of school and most drivers have multiple routes in the afternoon. Heat exhaustion cause an accident in the lives of many. We all know that still many children around the world don't even have access to an education or walk thru treturous conditions to get to a school that has dirt floors and a make shift roof, but this is America. In the Philippines a person can sell ice cubes to make money- why? Because not everyone in the neighborhood has a refrigerator. Here in America you lose you kids to the system when you don't have electricity and running water or a mattress for a child to sleep. Well, 3 hours of transportation on a bus 120 days out of a year is a lot of a holds life spent in the hands of someone who hasn't been considered neglectful during the summer months, mean while parents are being carted off to jail or stripped of their parental rights for the same level of offenses. Justice is manufacturing and installing systems to existing buses and maintaining the operation of them once installed and previously existing ones as well. Look at the jobs this movement would create.REPORT COMMENTS
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