[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 117 (Friday, August 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9476-S9477]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   A REPORT CARD ON SCHOOL BUS SAFETY

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise today to communicate some very good 
news to my colleagues in the Senate. The good news is about an issue 
that I have previously talked about on two or three occasions on the 
Senate floor, the issue of schoolbus safety.

[[Page S9477]]

  Over the last year and a half, I have been working on an important 
problem affecting the safety of America's schoolchildren. Mr. 
President, tragically, since 1991, at least six children have died in 
accidents involving defective handrails on schoolbuses. Other children 
have been injured.
  My interest in this issue, Mr. President, came about because of a 
horrible tragedy in my home county in Greene County, OH. A little girl 
by the name of Brandie Browder was killed. She was killed because of 
one of these defective handrails and because the drawstring from her 
clothing was caught on that handrail as she was trying to get off the 
bus. She was stuck there, and unfortunately the bus ultimately ran over 
her.
  We have been working for the last year and a half on this particular 
problem. As I indicated, we have made some, I think, very, very 
important progress.
  Mr. President, ever since I learned about these accidents, we have 
been trying to warn communities, schools, and parents in Ohio and 
across the country about this danger. We have publicized some methods 
for reducing the risk to children, such as a test we use in Ohio to 
determine whether a handrail is safe.
  Mr. President, I have also chaired two Senate hearings--two Senate 
hearings--to investigate this problem. At the most recent of these 
hearings, this past April, we displayed this chart. I might say, Mr. 
President, to explain this for a moment, the question, does your State 
remove schoolbuses with dangerous handrails? This was the status as of 
April, the red being ``no,'' the States that did not deal with this 
problem; the yellow being states that were dealing with this problem. 
This was an interim report. If we would have gone back a year before 
that, we probably would have seen virtually every State in the Union in 
the red with a ``no.'' So this was the progress as of April. You can 
see, Mr. President and Members of the Senate, at that time there were 
still at least 15 States that had these dangerous buses on the road.

  Since that time I have been working with both my colleagues in the 
Senate and directly with officials in these States to see what we can 
do to fix this problem. We have come a long way. I am glad to announce 
today, that as of today, as you can see in this new chart, all States 
except one--all States except one--are taking active measures to get 
schoolbuses with defective handrails off the road.
  Mr. President, as we approach a new school year, it is my hope that 
the last remaining State, the State of Georgia, will follow suit and 
will do this by the beginning of the school year. I have been working 
with Senator Coverdell to bring this issue to the attention of the 
relevant officials in Georgia. We certainly hope that Georgia will take 
action soon.
  Mr. President, we are close to a solution on the issue of defective 
handrails. I am encouraged by the cooperation I have received from my 
colleagues in this Chamber, and I want to help them for all the help 
they have given my office over the last year and a half. Let me stress 
that schoolbuses are already the very safest mode of transportation. 
They should be, because they carry the most precious asset that any of 
us have, and that is our children.
  Mr. President, we do have to do everything we can to make them even 
safer. That is why I will continue to work on other areas of the 
schoolbus safety issue. But on this issue, Mr. President, we are very, 
very close to solving the problem. If we can continue working together 
in this effective, bipartisan manner, I expect to make a great deal 
more progress on school bus safety in the months ahead.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  Mr. THURMOND addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
  Mr. THURMOND. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Thurmond pertaining to the introduction of S. 
2022 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

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