EARLY EVIDENCE INDICATES 'SAFE RIDE' LAW WORKING WELL By SECRETARY OF STATE GEORGE H. RYAN

In its first six months, the "Safe Ride" mandatory fingerprinting law for new school bus drivers blocked the hiring of 85 felons, including a Chicago man who raped and robbed four women in a two-week crime spree.

Without a doubt, fingerprint background checks are giving us a new weapon in the fight to keep unfit people from transporting our children. But to enforce this law, the Secretary of State's office is counting on those who hire bus drivers to make sure applicants are fingerprinted and pass drug tests.

I recently joined Sangamon County State's Attorney Patrick Kelley in announcing criminal charges against the company that transports Springfield public school children.

Laidlaw Transit Inc. is accused of putting 13 new drivers on the road last fall before they passed the required criminal background checks and drug tests. Among those was a driver who barreled over a railroad crossing with a child aboard last November while the crossing gates were lowering.

Each of the 13 counts of permitting an unauthorized person to drive a school bus is a business offense, carrying a maximum $10,000 fine.

Laidlaw is an international school bus transportation firm with 41 franchises in Illinois. The allegations pertain only to Laidlaw's Springfield operation.

Mandatory fingerprinting of all new school bus driver applicants was a key provision of legislation I backed to overhaul the regulation of Illinois' 25,000 school bus drivers.

Under the law, all new school bus driver applicants must pass a criminal background check by the Illinois State Police before they can receive a permit to drive a school bus. The permit is provisional until the prints also clear an FBI background check, which takes about two months.

Before the law took effect last July 1, school districts and bus companies had no effective means of conducting criminal background checks on drivers.

Of the 4,111 school bus driver applicants fingerprinted through December 31, 85 were connected with crimes that, under state law, bar them for life from driving a school bus. Most of them - 66 - had applied for jobs in Cook County, but 11 other counties had applicants with crimes, including murder, rape, prostitution, armed robbery and drug pushing.

Reading over this list is enough to make your blood run cold. Making sure these people never get anywhere near a school bus will continue to be one of my top priorities.

Among those whose applications were rejected was a 41-year-old Chicago man who spent nearly 10 years in Joliet Correctional Center after being convicted of raping and robbing four women and performing deviate sexual acts on two during a two-week spree in December 1978.

The man was on parole from a second stint in Joliet for another attack and armed robbery when he applied as a driver for United Quick Transportation of Chicago, which transports children attending Chicago public schools.

In the Laidlaw case, our office began investigating the company last November after one of its drivers ran her school bus through crossing gates during her fourth day on the job.

Laidlaw indicated to our office that the woman had cleared all background checks and was eligible for a driving permit on November 10. However, company records indicate that her fingerprint results did not arrive until November 20 and the drug test results did not come until November 22.

Further investigation showed 12 other drivers had been placed on the road before clearing either a background or medical check. Laidlaw is accused of physically altering three records.

With the evidence coming in, this is proving to be a very positive program, and many people are seeing the benefits. With cooperation on all fronts, the "Safe Ride" law is working well. •

May 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 13