By: Nicholas Laughlin
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will make changes to State Highway 21 to improve safety for school buses.TxDOT officials will make safety changes to SH-21 after a March 2 SMCISD bus crash.
A semi-trailer truck collided with a San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District (SMCISD) school bus March 2 on SH-21.
Iris Campbell, SMCISD public information officer, said district officials are working with Victor Vargas, TxDOT area engineer, to review options to increase safety for students and staff.
TxDOT officials previously put signs along SH-21 to caution drivers about speeding after an earlier accident involving a school bus.
Karen Griffith, SMCISD assistant superintendent of business and support services, said the March 2 collision sparked the changes in progress.
Officials from SMCISD and TxDOT discussed possible changes during a March 9 conference call, Campbell said. Propositions included reducing the speed limit along SH-21, adding additional signage and installing warning that would flash at specific times, such as during dropoffs and pickups.
Some of the updates may occur within a month, Campbell said. The approval for others is expected to take up to five months. “The goal of all parties is the safety of our students,” she said.
The changes will include the installation of three flashing lights. One eastbound and two westbound lights are scheduled to be completed by the end of spring, said Mark Cross, TxDOT public information officer.
A fifth lane will be added between Bogie Lane and Harris Hill Road, Cross said. The project includes the addition of a continuous left-turn lane. Officials expect the improvement to be completed during the summer.
SMCISD officials proposed the speed limit be reduced to 35 mph, Griffith said. Instead TxDOT lowered the limit from 65 to 55 mph.
The decision was based on a TxDOT study on traffic and road conditions, which showed the area on SH-21 to be a 55-mph zone, Griffith said.
The absence of a school zone means the limit does not necessarily have to be lowered to 35 mph. Griffith said motorists do not “anticipate” a bus to stop on SH-21 because it is a highway. “With the fast-moving traffic, (if) you have someone stop and someone isn’t anticipating it, then it causes an accident,” Griffith said.
Griffith said buses must stop in the right lane of the highway rather than on the shoulder to let children out. People tend to think they are not required to stop if the bus is on the shoulder. “Buses are supposed to stop traffic for the safety of the kids,” Griffith said. “Both lanes of traffic have to stop.”
SMCISD has a district initiative to create bus stop markers for rural routes in addition to the changes TxDOT will implement, Griffith said.
“(Substitute bus drivers) aren’t aware of where the stop is because they are looking for addresses, and in rural areas (the stops) aren’t marked,” Griffith said.
Cross said work on the changes will begin immediately. Projects will be completed within the next five to six months. “Safety for all is a TxDOT priority, with emphasis on these improvements focusing on students being transported through the area via school buses,” Cross said.
Nicholas Laughlin is a senior news reporter for the University Star where this story originally published, and is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and Corridor News.