Va. Might Raise School Bus Speeds

If Kaine Approves, Law Will Increase Limit to 45 MPH

School bus drivers say they get frustrated on such busy thoroughfares as Leesburg Pike, where they often can drive no faster than 35 mph, although other motorists can go up to 55 mph. (By Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)

For years, Virginia school bus drivers have said they had one pressing, if surprising, need: a need for more speed.

Now they're close to getting it under legislation passed this year in the General Assembly. The law would raise from 35 mph to 45 mph the speed limit for school buses picking up and letting off children before and after school.

If the measure is signed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), it will become law July 1.

Many bus drivers and law enforcement officers say buses poking along at 35 mph are a safety hazard as impatient drivers zip around or screech to a near-halt behind them. Allowing them to go a bit faster would remove some of those temptations, they say.

Under current law, Virginia school bus drivers can travel up to 45 mph when they are not picking up or dropping off children -- such as when they're heading to school with a full load or taking students on a field trip.

But drivers say they get frustrated as they mosey along at 35 mph between stops that can be miles apart on such major thoroughfares as Braddock Road, Lee Highway and Leesburg Pike, where speed limits range up to 55 mph.

Often, bus drivers exceed the limit for safety's sake, said Linda Powell, who coordinates driver training and safety for the Stafford County public schools. She lobbied Del. Edward T. Scott (R-Madison) to sponsor the bill.

"Sometimes they drove faster anyway in order to decrease the difference in speed. That is a real issue, so I said, 'Let's make this legal,' " Powell said. "We've had tractor-trailers pass us on the shoulders to get around us. It's scary. You have 60 of someone else's children between you and a tractor-trailer coming at you in excess of 60 miles per hour."

Northern Virginia school transportation officials say the bill would affect as many as 75 percent of the area's bus routes, especially in more rural areas of Loudoun, Fauquier, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties and in parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties, both of which have fast-moving traffic on cross-county parkways.

The rewriting of the Virginia law mirrors recent changes in Maryland, where lawmakers have passed a measure allowing school buses to travel as fast as speed limits allow. Systems such as Howard and Anne Arundel counties, however, require school bus drivers to travel 5 mph below the speed limit when the limit is 60 mph or higher.

D.C. schools, which transport only special education students, allow bus drivers to obey speed limits. But during poor weather conditions, they must go at slower, unspecified speeds.

The bill in Virginia, House Bill 650, sailed through the House of Delegates and Senate with unanimous votes in January and last month, but Kaine has not finished reviewing the bill, according to his spokesman Kevin Hall.

Even though the bill has received support from police, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson said he opposes it. School buses have a solid safety record under current law, he said and added that he thinks it would be too risky to mess with a "winning formula."

But to Ron Smith, 54, a retired Fairfax County firefighter who has spent the past six years as a bus driver in Prince William, the bill would make life a little less perilous.

Cars try to send him "a message," he said, when they pull up quickly behind him, pass on the left and dart back over with only a few feet to spare.

"But there's no message to give us," he said, "because we're following state law."