Two metropolis councilors are demanding that Boston’s public college district present solutions round its hiring, coaching and certification practices for bus drivers after a 5-year-old boy was killed by a faculty bus final month.
Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy plan to introduce an “order for a hearing to review the hiring, training, and compliance certification” of Boston Public Colleges bus drivers at Wednesday’s assembly.
“The safety of Boston’s children is non-negotiable,” Flynn and Murphy’s order states. “As elected officials, we must act with urgency to address the systemic failures that contributed to this tragedy and take meaningful steps to ensure that it never happens again. We owe it to the young boy who lost his life, his family, and every family who relies on BPS transportation.”
The measure units the Council to take up the matter simply days after the concerned BPS driver, Jean Charles, a Transdev worker since Could 2023, resigned after he was suspended for the crash that killed 5-year-old Lens Arthur Joseph in Hyde Park.
“Prior to the accident, the same driver reportedly struck two parked cars in Mattapan, raising immediate concerns about the city’s oversight of school bus operations,” Flynn and Murphy wrote. “It was subsequently revealed that the bus driver was working with an expired college bus certificates and had a document of prior collisions earlier that day.
“These facts are deeply troubling and demand an immediate and transparent investigation into the events that led to this fatal incident, including the driver’s history, actions and the decisions that allowed them to remain behind the wheel.”
The councilors added that the “tragedy underscores the urgent need to conduct a thorough review of the hiring and monitoring practices used by Transdev, the city’s contracted school bus company, including how drivers are screened, trained, certified, and supervised to ensure they meet the highest safety standards before transporting children.”
Per the order, Boston Public Colleges offers day by day transportation to roughly 22,000 college students, whose households entrust the district with their youngsters’s security.
Flynn and Murphy are asking that town consider and strengthen its present real-time security protocols “by implementing enhanced measures to monitor driver behavior, report incidents promptly, and identify and address any misconduct or violations before they result in harm.”
They’re planning to hunt testimony at a future listening to from representatives of the Boston Public Colleges and its transportation division, together with Transdev officers.
The councilors’ intention for the listening to is to “ensure that only qualified, properly certified, and closely monitored drivers are allowed to operate school buses.”
