A New Jersey lawmaker wants to crack down on Garden State school bus drivers who have had their licenses suspended, but don't tell anybody.

School Bus
Flickr user: Bsabarnowl
loading...

State Senator Shirley Turner is sponsoring legislation that establishes the crime of operating a school bus with a suspended driver's license.

She says under the bill, a person is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree if that person operates a school bus knowing that his or her license is suspended and operates a school bus transporting one or more students.

"Which means they could be imprisoned for a period up to 18 months and a fine of up to 10 thousand dollars…And then, it also establishes a crime of the 3rd degree if the bus operator is involved in an accident and there's some bodily injury. Then they could face 3 to 5 years behind bars, and a fine of 15 thousand dollars."

Turner decided to sponsor the measure because "not too long ago, there was an accident in Manalapan, where a school bus driver was found to have been on the suspension list and she had 37 children on her bus at the time- but fortunately none of the children were injured, so we want to make sure that people never have children injured because we have school bus drivers while on a suspension list…The measure would ensure peace of mind for parents - they should not have to worry about whether or not a school bus operator has a valid drivers license."

She adds the legislation also specifies, that if they knowingly operate a school bus without a valid license, "they will never be able to drive a school bus again - they will lose that privilege permanently…We've got to do everything that we can to protect our children."

 

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM