Montana schools chief cited in case of illegal bus passing

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s prime faculties administrator has been cited within the case of a pickup truck that illegally handed a college bus whereas it was stopped to choose up college students in a residential subdivision final week.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen was cited on Thursday after talking with an officer, mentioned Helena Police Lt. Jayson Zander mentioned.

In accordance with a police report, a college bus driver mentioned a car pushed by Arntzen go his bus whereas it was stopped to choose up youngsters simply after 7:30 a.m. on Might 19 in a Helena subdivision.

The bus driver acknowledged Arntzen and recorded the license plate quantity on the pink pickup truck, the police report mentioned.

A video of the incident reportedly “doesn’t present the license plate of the car concerned,” Arntzen’s workplace mentioned in a press release Friday.

“Superintendent Arntzen doesn’t recall the alleged incident,” Brian O’Leary, spokesman for the Workplace of Public Instruction, mentioned in a press release on Thursday. “She does acknowledge she drives a pink pickup and lives within the space.”

Montana’s 2021 Legislature handed a invoice to enhance bus security after a scholar in northwestern Montana was hit and critically injured by a driver who handed a stopped bus in November 2019.

Arntzen testified throughout a February 2021 legislative committee listening to in assist of the invoice, which referred to as for faculties to make use of prolonged cease arms in instances the place college students must cross a lane of site visitors and doubled the nice for illegally passing a college bus to a most of $1,000.

Her workplace on Friday thanked the bus driver who noticed the pickup truck go his bus for being vigilant. The case now goes to Helena Municipal Courtroom.

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