ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Weak but Needed Safety Step

A bill allowing school buses to use their flashing lights and stop traffic more often when children are getting off is a weak but needed first step to prevent tragedies like the one that occurred in Laguna Niguel last April. Gov. Pete Wilson should sign the measure.

The Legislature would have been better off requiring buses to use the lights whenever children get off. Opponents of the original bill expressed concern for the safety of the children and convenience of motorists, but their arguments were weak.

The final measure, authored by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), lets school districts decide the stops where drivers should flash warning lights even when a child is not crossing the street. Current law requires school bus drivers to use the flashing lights only when a child will cross.

The bill resulted from the death of Tommy Lanni, 7, who was killed on his second day at school in Orange County after his family moved from New York. It was his first day riding the bus and the child got off one stop too early. He was hit trying to cross the street to what he apparently thought was his house.

Neither the driver of a car that struck the boy nor the school bus driver were charged in the incident. Investigators said the bus driver thought neither the boy nor others getting off the bus would cross the street, so he did not use the lights.

Lanni’s father deserves credit for working to change state law, though he is understandably upset at the compromise that resulted. But rather than urging a veto, he should concentrate on his other promise--to continue working for a bill requiring flashing lights whenever children are getting off the bus.