A bill to lower the minimum age for school bus drivers in Tennessee failed in a senate committee.
In 2016, a Hamilton County bus carrying 37 Woodmore Elementary School students swerved off the road, crashed into a utility pole, flipped over and hit a tree. The crash left six students dead and dozens injured.
Senate bill 1042, if passed, would reverse a law that raised the minimum age of school bus drivers to 25 after the crash in Chattanooga, bringing it down to 21.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, narrowly failed the senate transportation and safety committee, 5-4.
State Sen. Tom Hatcher, R-Maryville, said his father owned school buses for more than 30 years and that he also owns school buses.
“I have seen a shortage of school bus drivers forever,” Hatcher said at the committee. “I just don’t believe that anyone under the age 25 is mature enough, when you take a vehicle as big and heavy as these vehicles are, and you have those kids on that school bus screaming and hollering and going on, and that bus driver is trying to keep them under control and drive.”
Hatcher voted against the bill.
“I think this is just an allowance for people to look at those that are 23 years old and who have had the proper training,” Bowling said in closing. “I would appreciate your positive vote.”
House bill 84, the house version of the bill, recently passed the house transportation committee and is on the house calendar for Monday.
In the house committee, state Rep. Greg Vital, R-Harrison, voted against the bill, and state Rep. Michele Reneau, R-Hixson, voted in favor of it.
“It really seems that career pathing for school bus drivers,” Vital has said, “has gotten ahead of the most important issue, and that’s public safety.”
Contact Sarah Dolgin at sdolgin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6556.