Track the bill House Bill 563 calls for prohibiting drivers from smoking on public school buses. A bill in the Georgia General Assembly calls for making it downright criminal. Proposed legislation introduced by state Rep. Burke Day, R-Tybee Island, would make it illegal statewide to smoke on public school buses. The offense would be a misdemeanor. While it would outlaw all smoking on public school buses, the bill specifically targets bus drivers, Day said.
Smoking is one more thing to divert their eye from the road.
Vox Populi column - alerted Day to the problem, he said. He was shocked to learn no state law prohibited school bus drivers from smoking. Bus drivers with Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools, like students, long have been banned from smoking on their vehicles, said Tom Williams, branch manager for Laidlaw Transit, the private company that runs buses for the school system. Drivers caught smoking on buses undergo disciplinary action, Williams said. Students do also, as long as the bus driver reports the violation to the school system.