Make Seattle school bus safety a legislative priority in 2024

As state lawmakers gear up for the 2024 legislative session, it is incumbent upon representatives from Seattle to carry the charge to tweak state law to keep children safe while riding the school bus.

Right now, odds are in drivers’ favor; if they blow past a school bus with its stop paddle extended while children are boarding or exiting the bus, nothing will happen to them. That’s because between the Seattle school district, the Seattle Police Department and the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, traffic safety involving school buses has slid down the priority list.

For years, Seattle Public Schools and the King County Prosecutor’s Office worked under a contract to make sure violators paid a hefty fine for ignoring a bus’s stop paddle. At $500 per ticket, the idea was to make such violations a onetime offense. While most motorists paid what they owed, SPS didn’t pay what it owed the prosecutor’s office, so that relationship ended. 

The district began talks with the city’s prosecutor earlier this year, but now that office says it doesn’t have the personnel to take on the responsibility. Same for the Seattle Police Department, which has been understaffed for a few years.

Now the problem is who can and will review tickets generated by footage collected from bus-mounted cameras — a job, according to state law, that must be done by law enforcement.

Senate Democrats told The Seattle Times editorial board that affordable housing and education will be among its priorities for the upcoming session. Student safety should be on that list as well, even if any potential change — such as allowing for specially trained civilians to review tickets — would be narrowly tailored to apply only to Seattle. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office said the city will continue to expand the use of cameras for traffic enforcement, already underway in 19 school zones. That, coupled with a legislative solution, would help decrease the number of violations.

While Seattle’s delegation in Olympia is figuring out how to finesse this, SPS and the city’s prosecutor’s office must collaborate as well while acknowledging financial restraints. This is what’s meant by doing the hard work.

Though hundreds of motorists each year sadly and boldly ignore our children’s safety, we don’t expect elected and appointed leaders to do the same.