DAYTON — Two local state lawmakers say our I-Team’s reporting prompted a new plan at the statehouse.
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They are pushing a plan to better protect people working to keep kids safe on the way to and from school.
Last month, the I-Team uncovered hundreds of instances here and across the country where crossing guards were badly injured or killed.
The I-Team found most drivers faced very few consequences.
That is one of the things lawmakers now tell the I-Team they want to change here in Ohio.
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When the I-Team first talked to Becky Evans in November, she spoke about long-term physical impacts from injuries, including her speech.
“Mentally, is gonna take a lot longer. I still see the headlights coming at me,” Evans said.
She suffered after a driver hit her while she was working as a crossing guard in front of Franklin Junior High earlier this year.
“I also hope that the state of Ohio will see this woman got a $48 fine for hitting me,” she said.
Evans said she wanted tougher state laws.
“That’s the laws that we have that need to be fixed. There should be bigger fines for flying through there like that,” she said.
Now that could soon be a reality.
Miami Valley State Reps. Tom Young (R-Washington Twp) and Andrea White (R-Kettering) tell the I-Team they’re drafting a bill in direct response to our I-Team investigation.
“We need to do something about it to ensure that people have education, awareness, and accountability,” White said.
In News Center 7’s original report, we teamed up with our sister stations around the country and the Associated Press for a months-long investigation to document more than 225 crossing guard accidents in the last decade.
We got a hold of law enforcement records in 180 of the cases.
Our investigation found more than 70 percent of those drivers who hit crossing guards got away with just traffic tickets or not even that.
“To just get off paying a fine and no further consequences than a fine that’s very small in many cases definitely needs to be fixed,” White said.
The bill would, among other changes, increase criminal penalties for drivers who hit crossing guards in Ohio.
“The legislation will call for a first-degree misdemeanor charge, and there’ll be subsequent charges after that,” Young said.
There are changes in the works to better protect the people who keep our kids safe on their way to and from school.
“In essence, they’re putting their body into harm’s way to protect them. That’s pretty powerful, and they deserve the protections that this bill will do,” Young said.
Reps. White and Young said they plan to introduce this bill in the Ohio House next month, then get it assigned to a committee once state lawmakers are back in session in February.
We’ll track this bill at the statehouse in Columbus and let you know what happens to it.
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