MOOREVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) - Dallas Gore teaches agri-science at Mooreville High School during the day.
But every morning and afternoon, he also is a school bus driver.
No one knows better than folks like him about the big job of keeping children safe on a school bus.
Gore said, "Just last week, I had a car fail to yield to the stop sign. It scared me as a driver. She totally blew past the stop sign. There's little we can do in that situation. If we can, we'll catch the tag number. Often times, you're watching the kids and you may not see it before they're out of sight."
Gore says a lot is going on at one time for bus drivers.
Gore said, "For the kids who are getting off the bus, we count them and make sure they're getting off in front of the bus or to the side of the bus. We're counting those and make sure they're accounted for before we pull away again."
Gore says students, too, need to be reminded about the safest ways of loading and unloading on a bus.
Drivers should never try to beat a bus that's slowing down or already stopped.
Gore said, "As soon as they see the yellow caution lights, they need to be aware this bus is going to stop. Do not try to beat the stop sign or stop arm or speed up to accomplish this."
There's a group in the state, the School Bus Safety Task Force, that's working to make getting on and off buses even safer.
That group is working with local school systems and will make recommendations to the state legislature during the upcoming session.
Gore added, "Just remember the couple extra seconds it takes to stop. I know it can be frustrating, but we're trying to protect all students. Nobody wants to see an accident."
It's against the law to pass a stopped school bus and a fairly new state law makes it easier to prosecute those violators.
