Every year since 2016, Austin school district bus drivers have been involved in about 200 crashes, leading to 37 injuries. In the first five months of this year, the district recorded 99.

Nearly half of those crashes were deemed preventable, and district officials are hoping to cut that number by 15% during the next school year.

Kris Hafezizadeh, executive director of transportation and vehicle services for the Austin school district, said preventable crashes dropped in the last school year compared to the previous one, and he hopes to bring them down further.

“Austin traffic doesn't help anyone, that has added issues for us,” Hafezizadeh said. "Austin traffic and everything else is also adding a lot to the equation on this one. There are more cars in Austin, there’s more traffic in Austin. Unfortunately, going through stop signs, going through traffic lights, there are more danger zones that we have now versus five or 10 years ago."

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District records show Austin school district buses carry nearly 23,000 students on nearly 500 buses every day.

Hafezizadeh said most bus crashes either involved a bus hitting a fixed object, like a tree or mailbox, or hitting something during a right turn. Most of the crashes are at low speeds and aren’t particularly serious or damaging, he said.

But that's not always the case. In January, a vehicle ran a red light at U.S. 290 and MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and struck an Austin district bus, sending it off a 15-foot section of elevated roadway. No students were on the bus at the time, but the driver, 60, was seriously injured.

Last month in Bastrop County, a 6-year-old stepped off an Elgin school district bus on U.S. 290 and was hit by an 18-wheeler as it swerved to avoid stopped traffic. The child was hospitalized but released the day after the crash, officials said.

In 2013, Austin school district officials began outfitting buses with lap and shoulder seat belts as an added safety measure. By 2019, those belts were on all the district's special education buses and about half of its other buses. Over the next few years, officials hope to have them on all the vehicles.

The district also puts its drivers through regular training and tracks their driving records throughout the year, whether they are behind the wheel of a bus or not. Traffic citations and crashes, even in personal vehicles, cause drivers to accumulate points on their records on a case-by-case basis. Any driver who accumulates 10 points over a three-year period will be recommended for termination, Hafezizadeh said. Before drivers reach that limit, district officials can pull them out and have them work as a bus monitors. Even without any points, if they are in a crash involving gross negligence, they may be fired immediately, Hafezizadeh said.

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By law, the district is required to pull its bus drivers’ records once every year for review. Austin school district officials pull their records four times a year, Hafezizadeh said.

He said motorists need to be attentive and extra careful near school buses, especially in school zones, where cellphone use is prohibited.

“It's not only the districts that have to do their share, it is also the public, other motorists. We have accidents (in which) the motorist rear-ends the school bus, and in a lot of instances, unfortunately, the cellphone is the problem, not paying enough attention and causing accidents,” Hafezizadeh said.

Austin police Cpl. Chad Martinka said patrol officers catch drivers speeding in school zones frequently. Austin police and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers conduct operations, particularly at the beginning of school years and semesters, to make sure drivers obey the law around school buses.

Traffic is required to stop for a bus in both directions on any roadway without a center divider. There are several Austin roads with four or five lanes that fall into that category.

“It’s more incumbent upon the drivers to be aware of their surroundings,” Martinka said. “The excuse of, ‘I didn't see the light, or I thought I was out of the zone’ — that's not a sufficient reason. That just tells me they're not paying attention to their surroundings.”

Martinka said that while officers can issue warnings to drivers they pull over in school zones, they are, across the board, far more likely to write tickets.

“A lot of the officers I've talked to, they are less lenient in school zones due the fact that it is a school zone and depending on which school you’re at, you're talking about kids as young as 4 jetting out into the streets,” he said.

According to the DPS, drivers caught illegally passing a school bus can be fined up to $1,250 for their first offense. A second offense can result in a driver’s license suspension for six months.

“It takes a village to make sure our students are safe,” Hafezizadeh said. “Do I believe our students are safe in our school buses? Yes. Can we guarantee every day that (incidents won't happen)? I can't guarantee that. But we do everything we can, and we will continue to do that to make sure we keep our students safe.”