A Deer Creek mother is raising concerns about what she believes is a dangerous bus stop at an elementary school.
Brittany Prickett lives on the corner of North Rockwell and West Memorial Road in the Deer Creek School District and says the bus stop in her neighborhood has moved three times in the past few years, each time farther away and just outside her apartment complex. Now she’s on a mission to change that.
“It’s about the safety of the children,” Prickett said.
On Tuesday, Prickett began going door to door in her neighborhood to collect signatures for a petition to move the bus stop back to the neighborhood, or at least closer.
“It’s half a mile from our house to the bus stop,” she said. “I know that doesn’t sound like a long distance, but when you’re talking about young children between the ages of five and nine, maybe ten, that’s a long way for them to go.”
And she points out that the bus driver does not always use the safety features. Her husband took a video of the bus during a stop without the lights and stop sign activated. In the video, children can be seen running into the road.
“They’re kids, they’re playing, they’re not paying attention,” Prickett said. “In the morning, cars just line up on the street at the stop sign, and people going to work can’t leave the neighborhood safely because there’s a line of parked cars, which creates traffic problems.”
While our cameras were there Tuesday, several buses stopped, including the elementary school bus, and all drivers used the bus’s safety features. But now Prickett is focused on moving the bus stop.
“We’re not asking you to come directly to us, we understand that’s not realistic,” she said. “We really just want to get their attention, get them to take another look at this site and hopefully transform it into a place where our children can get in and out of more safely every day.”
Prickett says once she collects enough signatures, she will present the request to the superintendent in hopes of getting the stop relocated or more stops added to the route.
The Deer Creek School District released the following statement in response to the bus routes:
“Bus routes will be designed to accommodate student population, fleet capacity and driver availability. Our district policy is that all Deer Creek students who ride the bus to or from school will have access to a bus stop within a half-mile of their home. Adjustments to bus stops and routes will be made throughout the school year based on unique circumstances.
In this specific case, the bus stop was chosen based on where our buses could safely reach students from multiple neighborhoods while ensuring they stayed within a half-mile of their homes.
The Deer Creek Department of Transportation takes all safety concerns seriously and addresses issues accordingly.”
