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District adds MBTA train-ride training for bus drivers, plans drills and route/start-time review
Summary
After a recent incident near a rail crossing, Freetown-Lakeville officials coordinated MBTA/MassDOT/First Student training for bus drivers, added a front-door evacuation drill in May and said the district will study start times and routes to improve afternoon reliability.
School district leaders described a multi-step effort to improve bus safety at railroad crossings and to address chronic afternoon route delays. The interim superintendent and transportation staff said bus drivers, administrators and transportation partners participated in a hands-on training April 11 that included riding an MBTA train and observing the Brailey Road crossing.
Terry Fleming, director of curriculum, described the April 11 session: "We boarded the train. We rode on the front... they were talking through the horns... what's happening in terms of changes in speed, what they're seeing in terms of lights so that the drivers had an understanding of what the engineers are seeing." Fleming said the training also included a joint observation with bus drivers at the Brailey Road crossing and a classroom safety session led by safety engineers.
Jack Higgins, director of finance, noted a visibility issue at the Brailey Road crossing: "In that particular crossing, you have visibility only down one way as you come up to where the stop point is," and added that some sight-line obstructions are on private property and therefore out of the train or district's direct control.
The district said it will add a front-door bus evacuation drill in May and roll out student safety trainings at each school between now and the end of the school year. Administrators also said they would remind student-athlete groups that loud celebrations on buses can interfere with drivers' ability to hear safety signals.
Officials are continuing daily monitoring of bus routes and are collecting data about which high school students will ride buses next year to see whether route truncation or adjusted secondary start times could reduce elementary students' late afternoon returns. The district plans to present potential start-time adjustments in May and said central-office administrators will continue periodically riding buses to observe conditions.
Why it matters: With MBTA service increasing through the district corridor, drivers face more frequent, higher-speed passenger trains than they did when freight traffic was the primary rail activity. The hands-on training and planned drills are intended to reduce the risk of driver error at crossings and improve on-time performance for students' afternoon transportation.
