RICARDO, Tx — Melanie Duran has two kids who ride the Ricardo Independent School District school bus every morning to school.
“Every morning I see the children excited to go to school and loading the school bus. I see them excited and wanting to see their friends,” Duran said.
But Duran, along with other parents, are concerned when it comes to bus safety in their area.
“The school bus is not able to enter our neighborhoods safely due to the narrowness of the road,” Duran said.
Duran said six years ago, there were no houses in the area, but as time went on, families started to move in, and the neighborhood grew while the road didn’t.
Parents found a solution to the first problem.
“At about 6:40 a.m. parents begin to park on this side of the road and we have about four cars here in the morning a total of about 6 kids. Then they cross over once the bus gets here,” Duran said.
However, that creates another problem. Children have to cross the road at dawn. For much of the school year, the sun doesn’t rise until after the morning bus pick-up.
“It’s extremely dark, especially during the winter months, and cars exiting our neighborhood aren’t able to see the children,” Duran said.
On April 10, one child was almost run over as she was crossing the road. This pushed Duran to do her own research into bus safety. She presented her findings to Kleberg County Commissioners to see what could be done to make children and parents feel safer and prevent any accidents or near-accidents in the future.
“One of our children was almost run over on April 10, which was extremely scary and dangerous. As a mom and an educator, I felt it was my duty to advocate for the safety of our children to have an equitable and safe opportunity to ride a school bus. The commissioner and I are in the process of identifying what is the best solution for our children,” Duran said.
Another parent from the area who has two children also shared their opinions on the matter.
“We are hoping the Judge can send a team of experts out to our area to assess the required safety concerns and action required improvements. We are asking the county judge to look further into this matter to ensure our children’s safety. I thank Mel for having the courage to stand up for our children’s safety. She has taken the lead role in research safety and statistics of incidents and accidents of our nature to the commissioner's court.
Therefore, the court has been enlightened of the safety and potential consequences.”
Kleberg County Commissioner for Precinct 3 Jerry Martinez said his goal is to install street lights around the area. He met with AEP Electric Company Thursday morning to get that process going. County Judge Rudy Madrid also reached out to Duran Thursday to discuss the matter more.
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