Legislature(1999 - 2000)
05/06/1999 01:05 PM House TRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE TRANSPORTATION STANDING COMMITTEE
May 6, 1999
1:05 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Beverly Masek, Chair
Representative Andrew Halcro, Vice Chair
Representative Bill Hudson
Representative Jerry Sanders
Representative Allen Kemplen
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative John Cowdery
Representative Albert Kookesh
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
*HOUSE BILL NO. 216
"An Act relating to required safety equipment on school buses."
- MOVED CS HB 216 (TRA) OUT OF COMMITTEE
(* First public hearing)
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: HB 216
SHORT TITLE: SCHOOL BUS SAFETY EQUIPMENT
SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVES(S) HARRIS, Mulder
Jrn-Date Jrn-Page Action
4/29/99 1074 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
4/29/99 1074 (H) TRANSPORTATION
5/06/99 Text (H) TRA AT 1:00 PM CAPITOL 17
WITNESS REGISTER
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN HARRIS
Alaska State Legislature
Capitol Building, Room 110
Juneau, Alaska 99801
Telephone: (907) 465-3799
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified as sponsor of HB 216.
JOHN MANLY, Legislative Assistant
to Representative Harris
Alaska State Legislature
Capitol Building, Room 110
Juneau, Alaska 99801
Telephone: (907) 465-3799
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information and answered questions on
HB 216.
LORETTA SCHOOLEY, Secretary-Treasurer
Alaska Motor Coaches, Incorporated
P.O. Box 952
Delta Junction, Alaska 99737
Telephone: (907) 895-4550
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of HB 216.
STEVE KALMES, Director of Transportation
Anchorage School District
3580 East Tudor Road
Anchorage, Alaska 99577
Telephone: (907) 563-3022
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of HB 216
EDDY JEANS, Manager
School Finance
Department of Education
801 West 10th Street, Suite 200
Juneau, Alaska 99801-1894
Telephone: (907) 465-2891
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on HB 216.
SANDY PERRY-PROVOST, Special Assistant
Office of the Commissioner
Department of Public Safety
P.O. Box 111200
Juneau, Alaska 99811-1200
Telephone: (907) 465-4322
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of HB 216.
CLARK GRUENING, Lobbyist
217 Second Street, Suite 204
Juneau, Alaska 99801
Telephone: (907) 586-8110
POSITION STATEMENT: Stated that he is working with Laidlaw
Transit and they are in full support of HB
216.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 99-19, SIDE A
Number 0001
CHAIR BEVERLY MASEK called the House Transportation Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. Members present at the
call to order were Representatives Masek, Halcro, Hudson, Sanders,
and Kemplen. Representatives Cowdery and Kookesh were absent.
HB 216-SCHOOL BUS SAFETY EQUIPMENT
CHAIR MASEK announced that the first order of business is House
Bill No. 216, "An Act relating to required safety equipment on
school buses."
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN HARRIS, Alaska State Legislature, testified as
the sponsor of HB 216. He stated that the request to have HB 216
presented came from a woman in Delta Junction who runs school
buses. She was joined by a number of other entities.
Representative Harris stated that under present law the stop arms
on school buses have to meet a certain type of style. The law does
not allow for an alternate type of style and there are other
alternate types of stop sign arms that are being made. These stop
arms are actually easier to see anytime of day. The stop arms now
are available with red lights used to light up the word "STOP".
The requirements for the lighting now are two different red lights,
one on the top of the sign and one on the bottom.
REPRESENTATIVE HARRIS said there is a Transportation Committee
Substitute for HB 216. The intent of the original bill and the
committee substitute are the same as to allow new technology to be
used on school buses without it being in violation of state
statute. He said in a number of areas some of the school buses
already have the new stop signs, and when the inspectors come
around the signs are removed in order to be in compliance with the
current statute. He stated that this should not have to be done
since the new style of sign is better than the old. He indicated
that all HB 216 does is change the requirement that allows the new
styles to be implemented on the buses and also changes some of the
requirements for the Department of Education.
Number 0300
REPRESENTATIVE HALCRO made a motion to adopt CS HB 216 (TRA)
(Version G, 1-LS0907\G, Ford). There being none, it was so
ordered.
JOHN MANLY, Legislative Assistant to Representative Harris, came
forward to provide information and answer questions on HB 216. He
stated that the committee substitute, requested by the Department
of Education [DOE], does two things. It deletes the statutory
requirements currently in law that cover such things as the stop
arm, the light strobe on top of the bus, where the exits are
placed, et cetera. All of these statutory requirements are also
duplicated in DOE's school bus requirement regulations. He
indicated that the problem encountered with the stop arms in
particular is when new and innovative technology makes itself
available the school bus operators cannot use the technology
legally because the requirements are in statute. If these
requirements were in regulation, then the commissioner of DOE could
make an exception to the regulation. Mr. Manly said the bill
removes Section 28.05.104 in its entirety and puts it into Title 14
which is DOE statutes under Chapter 9. He stated that Title 28 is
public safety statutes and is the only part that deals with buses.
Number 0515
REPRESENTATIVE HALCRO inquired if there is a fiscal note.
CHAIR MASEK believes DOE will discuss the fiscal note during their
testimony.
REPRESENTATIVE KEMPLEN asked,
Section 14.09.030 [CS HB 216 (TRA)] School buses. ... If
I understand you correctly, that is just moving language
that currently exists in statutes and over here in the
third page, [AS]28.05.104 from one part of the statutes
to another part of the statutes. Is that correct?
MR. MANLY replied yes. He said,
If you note the highlighted portion area in your file
there, that's the part that's being taken out of the
statutes, and then the rest of it from there down to
there [he is pointing to the bill], from Title 28 to
Title 14. And the "030" is just a number ... the drafter
picked because that, I guess, made sense to put it there.
Number 0614
REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON wondered if the bill had anything to do with
the "swing arm that keeps the children out from underneath, you
know, away from the front of the bus, so they can be seen by the
driver of the school bus?"
MR. MANLY replied this bill does not speak specifically to that
issue, but he believes it is part of the school bus regulations.
He thought Eddy Jeans from DOE could speak to that issue.
LORETTA SCHOOLEY, testified via teleconference from Delta Junction
in support of HB 216. She provided the following testimony:
The committee substitute is a good measure, I believe.
The purpose of the original request has already been
well-covered by Representative Harris and Mr. Manly and
we certainly do appreciate their efforts in this
situation. I believe the committee substitute is an
excellent housekeeping thing. It's something that
probably should have been done quite some time ago. The
elimination of the specifics from statute is good because
these things, as they said, are already covered in known
standards for school buses and these things are all under
Department of Education; we're working under those
everyday of the year. So, I think you've done an
excellent job on this. The question about the swing arms
on the front of the bus, ... Somehow correct me if I'm
wrong, those are not a requirement statewide, but I
believe some school districts are putting them into their
requirements. Thank you. ... We're just interested in
seeing this move along so that we can use this new and
improved technology to keep our kids safer.
Number 0832
STEVE KALMES, Director of Transportation, Anchorage School
District, testified next via teleconference from Anchorage. He
stated that the Anchorage School District also supports the
committee substitute for HB 216. He thinks it has been pretty well
explained by Representative Harris and Mr. Manly. He added that
the federal Department of Transportation did amend federal motor
vehicle safety standard 313 last spring. That is the standard that
discusses school bus-pedestrian safety devices. That particular
safety standard was amended to allow the LED stop arm. He said it
is the hope in Anchorage that this bill passes and they will be
able to equip buses with this new technology and that it can be
done soon.
REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON asked, with regards to the swing arm on
buses, if the Anchorage School District currently equips their
buses with some mechanism to preclude those type of accidents.
MR. KALMES stated that approximately two-thirds of the buses in
Anchorage are equipped with those devices. He said their
contractor, Laidlaw Transit, has nationwide equipped all of their
buses with that particular device. This has not been done in the
Anchorage School District. In an effort to address this problem,
all new buses purchased since 1989 in Anchorage have been the flat
front transit sort of buses which improve visibility dramatically
for the drivers. He said they believe they have dealt with the
visibility issue through the new type of bus rather than the
crossing guard.
Number 0966
REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON stated that he has an interest in this
because he watched a program on television which revealed a new
convex mirror system which gave full, unobscured view of the entire
front of the bus and literally around the side. He suggested that
if they did not have that information they should look at it
because it seems like the mirrors would be inexpensive and give
added security.
MR. KALMES stated that the mirror systems on school buses have
changed in the last several years, and all new buses are equipped
with the new mirror system which is far superior.
Number 1050
EDDY JEANS, Manager, School Finance Manager, Department of
Education [DOE], stated that it gets kind of cumbersome to
administer a program when referring back and forth to a couple
different statute. He said in prior years it was important that
that piece was in the public safety statute because DOE did work in
cooperation with the Department of Public Safety to provide school
bus inspections. Now DOE contracts to have all of their buses in
the state inspected twice a year. He indicated that coordination
of effort is not really is not required anymore. He said the
department is happy to see these minimum standards removed out of
statute. Industry is always making great advancements, and the
department wants to pilot these projects.
MR. JEANS referred to the 1995 Alaska Education Laws and
Regulations packet he provided. He said the first item in the laws
and regulations is the minimum standards for school buses in
Alaska. He pointed out section (B) of 4 AAC 27.110:
Minimum Standards for Alaska School Buses, Third Edition
(Revised), 1980, published by the department.
He said the minimum standards are updated quite often. The minimum
standards refer to national standards and are updated when national
standards are updated. He referred to page 12 of the 1994 revised
edition of the Minimum Standards for Alaska School Buses and stated
that one of the sections being repealed in the statute deals with
the roof mounted strobe light. He indicated the specifications for
the strobe light in these minimum standards are exactly the same as
those being deleted in the current statute. He indicated that the
stop signal arm section [1.b.] is also being removed from statute.
Number 1199
MR. JEANS stated that with the committee substitute of HB 216
[Version G] DOE is prepared to provide the committee with a zero
fiscal note.
REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON said he is very pleased to see this moving in
the right direction. He asked when the revised regulations will be
seen from DOE. He assumed there will be some adoption of new
safety regulations for all of the school buses in the state.
MR. JEANS stated that the regulations were last revised in 1994.
He anticipates seeing some revisions in the next couple of years.
REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON said on the revised draft there is mention of
school districts or regional REA's (ph) to provide instruction of
safe boarding. He said, "I assume you'd overlook that or provide
some sort of a standard or work with the school districts to adopt
and get those out into the fleet or the field."
MR. JEANS stated that the school district should already be doing
that if it is required under the current law.
REPRESENTATIVE HALCRO asked if the school districts will be
responsible to go to their contractors and work with them on these
regulations when this bill passes out.
MR. JEANS responded that the nice thing about this is that it is
not a mandatory change so the districts that want to use the new
stop arms, the project can be piloted and then put into regulation
to permit them to use those. With this there will not be a cost to
the state. He said the use of the strobe lights was a mandated
requirement approximately six years ago, and the state had to pay
to put strobe lights on every bus in the state. He referred to the
swing arm that Representative Hudson mentioned earlier and stated
that something like that would not want to mandated because there
are different types of buses.
SANDY PERRY-PROVOST, Special Assistant, Office of the Commissioner,
Department of Public Safety, stated for the record that the
Department of Public Safety is in support of the committee
substitute for HB 216.
Number 1413
CHAIR MASEK indicated that Tom Hyatt from Laidlaw Transit may be
calling in from the off-net site.
Number 1420
CLARK GRUENING, Lobbyist, stated that he is working with Laidlaw
Transit and said he would not want the committee to be held up in
its desire to move the bill if there is some technical difficulty
in connecting with Tom Hyatt. He informed the committee that
Laidlaw Transit is in full support of the bill.
REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON made a motion to move CS HB 216 (TRA)
[Version G] with individual recommendations and a zero fiscal note
and asked unanimous consent. There being no objection, it was so
ordered.
Number 1450
CHAIR MASEK adjourned the House Transportation Standing Committee
at 1: 25 p.m.
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