Mom calls for awareness at school bus stops

The mother of a young boy who was nearly run over while crossing the street to a stopped school bus wants to get the word out to drivers about the need to pay closer attention.

This is not a local problem. The major TV networks have been showing videos taken by cameras mounted on school buses across the U.S. showing vehicles speeding past while the buses’ side-mounted stop signs are down and the red lights are flashing. In some videos, vehicles as big as semi trucks narrowly miss schoolchildren at 60 mph.

In the incident last week, Christina Ost said her 11-year-old son was crossing North Hilltop Road to a stopped school bus when a red 1980s-vintage Dodge Dakota pickup sped past and nearly hit her son. She said she and her son take extra steps to avoid getting hit on dark mornings.

Ost was able to track down the vehicle and make a report to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office. She wasn’t happy to find out the high school-aged female driver only got a warning ticket, but that’s water under the bridge. Now she wants the public to be aware of the situation and become better drivers.

By law, drivers approaching from either direction must stop their vehicles when a school bus has its stop sign down and red lights flashing.

That includes big, wide highways with middle-turn lanes, like U.S. 2 between Columbia Falls and Kalispell.

School District 6 superintendent Steven Bradshaw said he would ask the sheriff’s department to consider this type of violation more seriously and start ticketing drivers who don’t stop for schoolchildren.

“With winter approaching, this will become an even bigger concern, and I will do what I can to get people to recognize the importance of stopping when our red lights are flashing,” he said.