The Senate Transportation Committee on Monday unanimously advanced legislation requiring the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission to make one annual surprise inspection in addition to one scheduled inspection of all registered school buses statewide.
The legislation is the latest in a series of bills Senator Patrick Diegnan has sponsored to help ensure the safety of more than 800,000 students who ride buses daily to and from school and extracurricular activities throughout the academic year.
Seven other school bus safety bills Diegnan sponsored over the last six years have been signed into law.
A state task force currently conducts about 100 unannounced school bus inspections each year, compared to two scheduled annual inspections for each of the state’s 24,000 school buses.
According to a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey investigation, the state in 2019 issued an average of eight safety violations per bus during surprise inspections and one violation for every 345 buses during pre-announced inspections.
“This commonsense bill would not be adding any additional requirements except as opposed to the inspections being scheduled there will be one surprise inspection so that we will know the operator has the bus as safe as it can be, up to standards, and all of the necessary requirements of the drivers are in place,” said Diegnan, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee.
The inspections include vehicle maintenance and records, which demonstrate a driver’s compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements for authorization to operate a school bus.
“This is nothing more than making the inspection as safe and as thorough as it can be,” Diegnan said. “Protecting our children should be our top priority.”
The bill would also provide that any fine imposed pursuant to the “School Bus Enhanced Safety Inspection Act” that is collected and remitted to the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission would be required to be used for the continued administration of the program.
Other school bus safety bills Diegnan sponsored that Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law include legislation that:
- Creates the Office of School Bus Safety in the Department of Education to monitor and administer all school bus safety and oversight activities.
- Requires the State Department of Education to provide for debarment of school bus contractors for certain violations and requires a board of education to review a debarment list prior to awarding a pupil transportation contract.
- Revises violations and fines ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 for knowingly or unknowingly approving or assigning unauthorized individuals as school bus drivers.
- Requires school bus operators in the state to comply with federal regulations concerning safety, noise emissions, insurance, and drug testing.
- Requires all permanent and substitute school bus drivers and aides to undergo safety education programs twice annually.
- Requires a board of education or school bus contractor, upon receiving notice from the Department of Education that a school bus driver has had his or her bus driver license suspended or revoked, to verify to the Department of Education that the driver in question no longer operates a bus under their employ.
- Requires holders of a bus driver license to submit a medical report from a certified medical examiner, requires bus drivers over age 70 to submit proof of physical fitness annually, and requires bus drivers over age 75 to submit such proof every six months.
Senator Patrick Diegnan 