Bus drivers receive transportation safety honors

Monroe School District transportation department employees have collectively racked up just under 400 years of safe driving. One driver in particular has contributed more than 30 years and a million miles to that figure.

Manager Joe Banach decided this year to break that amount down into milestones and recognize the time put in by individuals during the department’s annual in-service day Wednesday, Aug. 23. Superintendent Dr. Fredrika Smith assisted. 

“I will say with 100-percent honesty that it is really refreshing to wake up in the morning and know that our kids are going to get to school safely and make it home safely,” she said. “That is not always true in every role I have had in every district.”

School buses travel billions of miles annually, and carry millions of students each day, according to the transportation department. They also have the highest safety record, lowest fatality rate of mass transit and are believed to be the safest way to transport children to school.

Teen drivers cause 57 percent of youth deaths recorded during school travel hours, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the American School Bus Council. Following behind are adult drivers at 23 percent and other forms of travel at 19 percent. School buses are involved in less than 1 percent of annual recorded youth fatalities.

Banach noted several employees who were a few months shy of reaching a milestone year by that date, and they will be recognized next year. He also handed out awards for outstanding service. Ten local drivers were acknowledged for hitting the 5-year safe driving mark, eight for the 10-year mark and six for the 20-year mark at the in-service ceremony.

“Think about that: 20 years of going up and down the road of safe driving without having an avoidable accident — that is commendable,” Banach said.

He finished off with a final accolade set aside for a driver who has been with the district for more than three decades. Jane Duffy has spent that much time on the road without getting into an avoidable accident.

The special education bus driver chalks up her clean record to “just being cautious, just being aware of your surroundings, you know? Basically, that is how everybody should drive.”

Banach added that Duffy has bussed more than 1.1 million miles for the district over the years. She could have made four trips from Monroe to the moon, 40 trips around the world, or 350 trips to New York City by driving that same distance, he said.

“Sometimes I feel like it’s more, when you add in field trips and all,” she said.

Duffy went through training 34 years ago with another one of the school district’s senior drivers, Kathy Carnes, who started just 14 days later. Duffy said she was originally convinced by a neighbor to give the career a try.

“I just needed the money,” she said. “There has been times I have tried to leave. I guess it is just the money. It was good hours, and the longer I stayed, the more hours I got. Plus, I was a single mom, and it worked out for raising my daughters.”

Duffy said one of those moments she rethought working in the field occurred when she was starting out. It was before she was hired on, and she was driving as a substitute. Back then there were no radios, and “you were basically flying by the seat of your pants,” she said. She took a wrong turn, and while trying to return to the right route Duffy drove over a man’s car. Every time she tried to correct herself, he would move and she would hit him again.

“After that I got a three-day vacation without pay,” she said with a laugh.

Duffy said she tells her peers that story whenever they make a mistake on the road. The industry has changed significantly since then, she said.

The process for getting a commercial drivers license is much more rigorous, Duffy said. She jokes that she isn’t sure she could pass it now. She started out by jumping on and being shown how to drive the 1957 vintage with a double clutch shift. Some of those vehicles, she recalls, even had holes in them.

Now, drivers are required to have annual safety training, and will request and pick up more if they come across new developments or techniques, Duffy said. She said she tries as often as possible to learn new skills, such as becoming licensed to restrain a child who is acting out because of their disability.

“I want to know how to help my kids, and to do that I have to know my training,” she said. “I have to be trained, and every year it’s a little different because you get different kids.”

Duffy also said the job is where she has met some of her best friends. She has driven students with special needs for about two decades, and said she loves the chance to work one-on-one with the kids and their families. 

“There are a lot of people who you have made friends with for life,” she said.