It was every parent’s worst nightmare.
One day in December 2022, a school bus was dropping off children at a stop on Merrimon Avenue while the arm of the school bus was out to stop traffic. Suddenly, a car ignored the flashing lights and zipped past on the right side bike lane, narrowly missing a 12-year-old sixth grader who had just stepped out the door.
“It’s terrifying,” the boy’s mother, Asheville attorney Diane Walton told 828newsNOW, describing a video of the incident captured on the school bus camera. “It missed him by 10 inches.”
Her son was uninjured. But later, when school officials told Walton to brace herself and shared the frightening video, “my blood ran cold,” she said. “He could have been killed. He would have been killed…”
Horror stories like that are behind a special event on Wednesday, when school bus drivers in Asheville City Schools and districts around the country will be holding their annual survey of “stop arm” violations, to meticulously document incidents for a database of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services.
They’re trying to raise awareness about illegal passes when school buses are stopped with red lights flashing and stop arms deployed. It really does mean “STOP.”
“It’s going to take something tragic before we get attention on this,” ACS Transportation Director Amanda Rigsby told 828newsNOW.com.
Wednesday’s annual survey is a partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Rigsby, a more than forty-year veteran of children’s transportation services, said, “I’m always surprised by the number of stop arm violations.”
She said that in Asheville cases are particularly common on Hendersonville Rd., Montford Avenue, and Merrimon Avenue. “We’ve not seen a decrease” in violations, she lamented.
According to Rigsby and Walton, the driver in the 2022 case on Merrimon Ave. never was prosecuted, much to their chagrin.
Rigsby said she has been frustrated seeking statistics on the number of cases that are prosecuted. She has been advocating for strict enforcement. She said police have been helpful but can only do so much.
Rigsby said she is completely focused on children’s safety.
“When I am assigning a kid to a bus stop, I am telling the parents and community that child will be safe,” she said.
She encouraged people to apply to serve as bus monitors, which brings extra adult on board.
In the meantime, Walton said all drivers need to make safety of children a top priority.
“Your being home a few minutes early from work is not worth killing a child,” she said.
M.E. Sprengelmeyer contributed reporting to this story.