BOSTON — Nearly a year after a young girl was killed in a school bus accident in western Massachusetts, a bill to require safety sensors for school bus doors is still on the table and may be pushed to next year for more comprehensive legislation.
Last October, 9-year-old Summer Steele died after her backpack became caught in the doors of a school bus in Plainfield. After the accident, Mohawk Regional School Superintendent Michael Buoniconti contacted Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, to propose legislation to require safety sensors on all school bus doors. The sensors would be designed to ensure that riders have fully cleared the passenger-side door before it closes.
A hearing on the resulting bill, S.1931, took place before the Legislature’s Transportation Committee in May. Since then, Hinds’ office, in a statement to the Gazette, said the senator has been working to add amendments to the bill to address a broader spectrum of safety issues for schoolchildren.
In part, this is in deference to Summer’s family, who have indicated through their attorney to Hinds that they support any legislation that improves safety for children riding school buses and may be open to helping craft a broader bill in the future.
As a result, Hinds’ office said he is not actively pushing to advance the existing bill.
“Our office is waiting to hear from [the Steele family] on their own timetable to discuss a broader bill,” the statement from Hinds said. “We are open to letting this conversation take place in time to file broader legislation for the next legislative session if that is the family’s preference.”
Buoniconti said in a telephone interview with the Gazette that he believes working with the Steele family on their time is the best course of action.
“It’s something that should stay on the front burner,” Buoniconti said. “I trust the senator’s office. They’ve been in touch regularly with the family.”
He said that when he contacted Hinds’ office to propose bus safety legislation, he was thinking in terms of technology that already exists such as elevator and garage door sensors.
In this case, Buoniconti said, it makes sense to take the time to work with the Steele family and look at the technology available to make school buses safer for all the children who ride them.
Meanwhile, Hawley bus driver Tendzin Parsons, 70, awaits a pretrial hearing Oct. 17 on a charge of negligent motor vehicle homicide in the Oct. 28 death of Summer, a third-grade student at Sanderson Academy in Ashfield.
Parsons was expected to plead guilty in Summer’s death in a Northampton District Court hearing earlier this month. He withdrew that plea after listening to tearful and angry words from Summer’s parents and facing a judge who wanted to sentence him to jail instead of probation.
M.J. Tidwell writes for the Gazette from Boston University’s Statehouse Program.
This story has been updated with comments from Mohawk Regional School Superintendent Michael Buoniconti.